


Occam's Razor

by texaspeach



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family of Blood AU, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-07-07 19:01:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 57,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15914346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/texaspeach/pseuds/texaspeach
Summary: At its most basic, Occam's Razor says the simplest solution is most likely the right one.The Doctor and Rose are on the run from the Family of Blood, and the Doctor uses the Chameleon Arch to throw them off their trail.When you take the baggage and leave the Time Lord, what's left?





	1. Chapter 1

“Did they see you?” he demanded as they rushed into the TARDIS. No sooner did Rose close the door than he began the dematerialization sequence. His usual spastic dance around the console had sharpened into the near-military precision he had attained during the war. (Never mind that there were really supposed to be six pilots to one TARDIS - he’d never let anyone else in his ship unless he wanted them there, let alone help pilot it.) The urgency of the situation was like slipping into the war all over again, except this time they were escaping creatures far more insidious than run-of-the-mill Daleks. Once in the Vortex, he set the TARDIS on random, enabling her to jump time like a hopscotch game in the hopes of getting away from this Family of Blood.

He swore when they followed, just a few steps behind. They must have gotten to a Time Agent and stolen his Vortex manipulator, he realized with sinking hearts. The TARDIS couldn’t jump like this indefinitely - they’d only just left from Jackie’s flat after the Sycorax tried to invade and the TARDIS really needed to refuel before they did much more traveling. He needed to get them somewhere safe so he could deal with this newest enemy.

Except…

Except he was so tired of fighting. It had only been a few days ago that he was facing the Daleks on Satellite Five and facing the prospect of regeneration. He still didn’t know how he hadn’t regenerated after taking the Vortex out of Rose. He suspected it had something to do with Bad Wolf, but it wasn’t as though he could just up and ask her. Rose remembered enough as it was - golden light, a singing, and the feather-light touch of his lips against hers - and he wasn’t about to risk her burning again just to answer a question that didn’t really need answering. There were enough questions that needed answering that were far more weighty, the most pressing of which was just what their relationship was now.

He hadn’t intended for her to remember the kiss, but she did, and it was obvious she was hoping their relationship would continue along that path. He wanted it too (oh, how he wanted it), but she didn’t deserve to be saddled with someone like him. She needed someone else. Someone like Jack, as much as he hated to admit it. Someone who was pretty, could take her on the sorts of adventures she loved, and didn’t have near as much baggage dragging behind him. And yet no matter what he thought, something in him snarled fiercely at the thought of anyone but him being with Rose.

He shook his head roughly. Now was not the time to analyze the shift in their relationship. Now was the time to figure out how to escape with as little difficulty as possible. Unfortunately, the only thing he could think of was using the Chameleon Arch, which did not fall into the category of easy. Truthfully, it was the furthest thing from easy - though he’d never had the opportunity, or rather the necessity, to use it, he’d heard about it from other Time Lords who had gone through the process. It was, they all said without exception, one of the most painful things they had ever done.

(Of course, they also hadn’t gone through the experience of a billion Gallifreyan minds suddenly snuffed out like a candle and leaving nothing but echoing silence behind. The Chameleon Arch would probably be a piece of cake after that.)

The TARDIS hummed at him urgently, prodding at him to get back on track. He grimaced in agreement and turned to his companion.

Rose’s face was pale with fright, but she was looking at him with determination. “What do we need to do, Doctor?” she asked calmly.

Not for the first time, he felt a rush of pride and affection for his precious girl. So many others from his past would have panicked themselves into uselessness, but not Rose. She was ready to do what was needed and nothing less. He could see the stubborn set of her jaw and knew that he would be in safe hands during this whole experience. Literally, he thought, his mind going to the fob watch in one of the drawers of the console. He walked over to her and set his hands on her shoulders. She looked up at him, biting her lip.

“Did they see you?” he repeated, this time more gently. He brushed some hair out of her eyes, trying to ignore his urge to draw his thumb across her lip. “It’s important, Rose.”

Her brow furrowed and her eyes cut off to one side as she thought. “No,” she replied slowly. The wrinkles cleared as she shook her head decisively. “No, they couldn’t have. My back was turned the whole time.” She looked up at him again, chewing on the abused lip now. “Is that good?”

Unable to help himself this time, his thumb dragged across the plump flesh, surprising her into releasing it. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead before wrapping her in a hug. “Fantastic,” he assured her. She tucked her head under his chin and snaked her arms around his waist, tightening her grip enough that it bordered on painful. He didn’t mind.

He stood there for a precious moment - one he didn’t really have but he would take anyway - soaking in the unabashed affection practically radiating from her. All too soon, however, the TARDIS butted in, humming apologetically but firmly.

“Right,” he said abruptly, tone at odds with his gentle disentanglement from Rose. “I was tryin’ to get us away from those things, but they got their hands on a Vortex manipulator somehow-” he wasn’t going to elaborate, though from her look Rose understood what he wasn’t saying “-so they can follow us through the Vortex.”

“Why are we tryin’ to get away from ‘em?” Rose asked sharply. “Are they dangerous?”

“Very,” he agreed. “They suck the life right out of other lifeforms and use it as their own. Usually it’s jus’ little animals and the like, but then I blundered in with my massive lifespan. They’ve latched onto my scent and now they’ll follow me to the ends of the universe to get their hands on it. Good thing is they didn’t get a good look at me, just the smell.”

“So what do we do?”

On cue, a silver helmet-like contraption suddenly dropped down from the ceiling. Rose raised a dark eyebrow at it and turned back to him in question. “This is a Chameleon Arch,” he explained. “It’ll rewrite my DNA and make me completely, 100 percent human. One heart, no respiratory bypass, tiny little ape brain.” He threw in the last just to poke at her and was rewarded with a scowl and a punch to the arm. “I won’t consciously remember anything about Time Lords or my past. The TARDIS will make up a life for me. She’ll fit you in somehow, don’t worry.” He tilted his head to one side as the TARDIS hummed at him again. “She’s already packed a bag with some stuff. Don’t know what’s in it. It’s on your bed. Off you go then!” He gave her a fake grin.

She didn’t buy it. “It rewrites your DNA?” she asked. “Sounds like it’ll hurt. A lot.”

The grin faded. Of course she’d figure that out. “It will,” he admitted, then shrugged nonchalantly. “But how bad can it be? Go get your stuff and come back here.” She nodded and left at a run, feeling the urgency of the situation. Or maybe the TARDIS was talking to her too. Who knew if they’d retained some sort of connection to each other? They hadn’t had much time to run tests. Had he known they’d run into this kind of trouble straight off he would have already run the tests. As it was, she didn’t seem to be in danger of burning and she was a terrible patient anyway, so he’d chosen to wait. Or rather, he’d been putting it off. He didn’t want to run the tests.

He feared what they would reveal.

While waiting for her to return, he sat down and recorded a video with some instructions. Nothing too hard to remember, and not many of them. She had a smart enough head on her shoulders to know what she should and shouldn’t do. He trusted her as much as she trusted him to do the right thing.

As he finished, a small drawer beside the monitor popped out, displaying the silver fob watch. He took it hesitantly, his fingers tracing the familiar circular language engraved on it. Before he could dwell too much on what it said, words of caging and binding, Rose returned.

“Don’t know why She thinks I need all this stuff,” she groused. “Can’t I just get into the wardrobe if I need something?”

“Nah, she’ll be on emergency power while I’m human,” he responded, running his finger one last time over the watch before pocketing it for the moment. “Console room only. She won’t be able to retrieve it.” He looked over at her, absently noting that she’d changed clothes before glancing at the huge bag next to her. Then he blinked and looked back at Rose, his eyes running up, down, and back up again.

The last time he’d seen her in a dress was Christmas in Cardiff. He’d been stunned for a brief moment then, too. She’d looked beautiful in that outfit, even if she’d admitted later that it was the worst thing she could have chosen to wear for an adventure like that. The boots especially, she’d grumbled, noting that she’d nearly turned an ankle more than once that night.

This dress was more practical than the last. Knee length, maybe slightly longer, it was fitted to showcase her figure without being skintight. She wore low-heeled pumps with stockings to go with the dress. Her hair was different too, though he couldn’t put his finger on why. Whatever it was, she looked like a 1950s American housewife, and something in his chest tightened at the thought. No matter what he might want as a Time Lord, he didn’t want her to have to pretend to be his wife when he was a human. That would lead to all kinds of trouble, trouble that neither of them needed when they stood at such an uncertain junction in their true relationship.

“Doctor?” His eyes, which had been lingering around her waist (was she thinner or was it just the dress?), snapped back up to hers and he blushed, his vaunted superior control of his biology vanishing at the sight of her tongue-touched grin. Her eyes sparkled. “See somethin’ you like, then?”

He considered his answer for a split second. “You look beautiful,” he said honestly.

“For a human,” Rose laughed, making fun of him. However, he could see the insecurity in her eyes, despite her catching him looking.

He shook his head and went over to her, grasping a hand in one of his. “That might’ve been the stupidest thing I’ve said,” he admitted ruefully. He brought his other hand up to cradle her cheek. “You look beautiful for any species.”

Her eyes shone at his words, any trace of insecurity gone with his admission and replaced by tentative hope. He shut his eyes against the sight, hating himself for giving her hope for the future when he refused to take it any further. Coward, him.

He pulled away and went over to the Chameleon Arch, checking it over for any obvious problems. Seeing none, he fitted the device over his head, then took it off again and turned to look at Rose. She was watching him sadly. (Because he didn’t kiss her, or for some other reason? He didn’t know.) “Will you be all right?” she asked.

He flashed her his manic grin. “Course I will,” he replied flippantly. “Now, these things only have a natural life span of about three months and I'm almost positive that they've been stuck on that planet for a while now, so wherever we end up, that’s how long we’ll be there. Hopefully they won’t find us before their time runs out. If they do…” He took the watch out of his pocket and tossed it to her. Surprised, she fumbled with the device before getting a firm grip on it. “I’ll be in there. My Time Lord self, I mean,” he added, seeing her confused look. “If somethin’ happens, if they find us or I’m about to do somethin’ stupid and get myself killed or somethin’, open the watch and I’ll change back. All right?”

Rose nodded, uncertainly at first before that determination he loved began to flood through once more. It struck him just how much she had changed since the Game Station. Before, she’d been a girl playing at being an adult. Now she was a woman grown. He wondered, not for the first time, how much of it was natural and how much of it was related to Bad Wolf. Looking into Time itself did things to a person - he should know, since he’d been running ever since he looked into the Untempered Schism.

Shoving those thoughts away, he flipped the switch to land the TARDIS. Once the requisite jolting and bumping finally came to a stop, he looked over at Rose. “You can’t touch me,” he warned. “Even if I’m screamin’, you can’t do anythin’. The Arch’ll try to rewrite your DNA too, but since you won’t have it on, your brains’ll get scrambled.” He steered her away to the other side of the console for good measure. Squeezing her hand once and pulling the watch out of her grip, he walked back over to the Arch and pulled it down over his head, placing the watch into the circular depression. He looked back at her and grinned. “See you in three months.”

Then he pushed the button.

***

He didn’t scream. That might have been the worst thing about the whole process. The grunts and groans of pain, the terrible look on his face, the way every muscle in his body tightened until she knew he would wake up to pain reminiscent of the worst sort of exercise, those were terrible. Worst of all was that she couldn’t do anything to help ease the pain. Rose knew she would have nightmares about this, this feeling of helplessness.

What seemed like hours later, though it was probably only a few minutes at the most, the Chameleon Arch popped off his head and retracted to the ceiling. She didn’t notice the movement, too busy slamming down to her knees on the grating next to the Doctor’s prone body after he collapsed. She reached down and placed shaking fingers to his neck, feeling the strangeness of a single pulse throbbing quickly. She shook his shoulder gently, but there was no response. Biting her lip, she shook him harder. Still nothing.

The TARDIS hummed at her and she turned to the console, frowning. Ever since the Game Station, she had been able to understand the TARDIS’s method of communication just as easily, if not more so, than the Doctor. She’d hesitated to mention this fact to the Doctor because she knew that he would want to run a battery of tests in the med bay. After her experience with Jimmy Stone, she stayed as far away from extended stays in hospitals or med bays as much as possible.

Maybe she should have spoken up earlier, but whatever it was doing, it certainly wasn’t hurting her. The TARDIS was even more helpful than She’d been before. Monitors that had been unreadable before were now easily read, the circular language that the Doctor read changing into English. Not everything was changed, as the TARDIS still protected his privacy, but the things that pertained to her or their situation were usually translated. She was always able to get to where she needed to go within a few seconds of walking into the hallway that branched out from the console room, something that had the Doctor wildly jealous. That never happened for him, he’d grumbled.

Now the ship was flashing a monitor at her, beckoning her to the console. Casting one last long look at the Doctor, she got up, wincing as her knees stung from their hard landing on the grating. She limped over to the screen and looked over the information shown there. As she read, her eyebrows went higher and higher. Upon reaching the end, she turned to look at the Doctor once again, folding her arms and shifting her weight to one side.

“Well, this’ll be interestin’.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John works on a car. John meets Rose. John might be in love.

John slid out from under the car he’d been working on and stood up, stretching and wincing as his back popped. At 39, he really was getting too old for this sort of thing, he thought. At least for crawling under cars and staying there for several hours straight, anyway. But the job was done, he thought with some pride, wiping his dirty hands on an equally dirty rag. The other mechanics in the garage had all given up on it. It’d been pure luck that he’d arrived early the day the manager was going to ring up the customer and explain that there wasn't a way of fixing it that wasn't extremely expensive and they'd be better off just buying a new car. After the problem was explained to him, he knew exactly what needed to be done. He grabbed some tools and slid under the hunk of junk and stayed there until it was fixed up and ready to go.

The manager, a rail-thin stick of a man, couldn’t stop babbling about how he was an absolute miracle worker. “We’d never have gotten this thing running in time, I tell you. Thank goodness you showed up when you did! I’ll have to introduce you to the girl picking the car up, so she knows just who to thank. She’s English, like you,” he added over John’s protestations that he didn’t really want to meet anyone looking like this. “She’ll be really excited to meet someone else from England, I’ll bet.”

She? The owner was a she? Here he was dressed in dirty suspenders streaked with oil and grease and he was being dragged out to meet some older dame who was probably wearing all white with not a stain, smear, or smudge on her.

Ah well, it wasn’t like he was out to impress anyone anyway. After his family had been killed in the Christmas Blitz, he’d had no desire to be close to another woman. He was... well, content wasn’t exactly the word, but he was fine with how his life was now. Domestics certainly weren’t in the picture any longer.

Grumbling, he backed the car out into the lot and then went into the toilet to attempt to wash the detritus from the vehicle off his face and hands. He was only marginally successful, and that was on his hands, not his face. He still had a good sized streak that stretched across his forehead and down one cheek where he’d wiped the sweat off. Shrugging - this was as clean as he could get without a good shower - he left and headed toward the front office, where he could hear indistinct voices. They became clearer as he got closer, and he sorted them into Robert, the manager; Timothy, the office boy (teenager, the kid always protested, as if being thirteen meant that he’d been a teenager for years) and Robert’s son; and a woman who must have been the car’s owner. Frowning - that didn’t sound like an older woman to him - he stepped through the door and into the office.

The woman standing on the other side of the counter was not at all like he’d expected. For one thing, she was young. Much younger than he would have thought considering her status as the owner of a car, but she could be some rich man’s daughter, he supposed. For another, she was dressed in men’s clothing and rather dirty. What on earth had she been doing to get so completely covered in dust and dirt? 

All those thoughts suddenly fell away as she turned to look at him. Those strange, almost golden eyes caught and held his like nothing ever had. He had the brief, uncomfortable sensation of prey being sized up by a predator, but then she blinked and it was gone. All that was left was the knowledge that he knew this woman, knew her in a way that he didn’t understand, and even that disappeared, leaving him off-balanced and not knowing why.

“I hear you’re the man I have to thank for fixin’ the car,” she said pleasantly, holding out a hand. He took it and shook mechanically. “M’name’s Rose Tyler.”

“Nice to meet you, Rose.” The words popped out of his mouth almost automatically, and a strange feeling of deja vu came over him. He shook the thought away and tightened his grip before letting go. Robert cleared his throat. John blushed at the social gaffe of calling her by her first name before gaining permission. “Er, Miss Tyler. I’m John Smith.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Smith,” she replied, eyes bright. “But Rose is fine.” She gave him a tongue-touched smile. His eyes flickered down to that sliver of pink for a second.

“Call me John,” he insisted in turn, smiling as well. There was something about this girl that was familiar. He couldn’t put his finger on it. But that was a question for later. “I have to admit, you weren’t exactly what I was expectin’,” he admitted.

“You’re not exactly what I was expectin’ either,” she retorted. “What’s a Manc doin’ in a tiny town in the Midwest?”

He smirked at the fiery reply. Oh, he liked her. So many of these young girls played at being demure and proper, but he’d take a girl who was bold and brassy any day of the week. More conflict, perhaps, but that made it all the more fun.

Before he could answer, Robert broke in. “Uh, Miss Tyler, where’s Mr. Hutchinson? I thought he was coming to get the car?”

Rose waved a hand airily. “He’s sick. Sent me to get it instead,” she explained, taking out a wad of bills and handing the whole lot to him. John mentally reworked his image of the girl. William Hutchinson was the driver for Joan Redfern, the head of a school on the edge of town. Judging by her clothes and appearance, she must be a maid or some such at the school. Though he wasn’t sure exactly how a maid would get quite that dirty. Dusting was one thing, but she was covered in soil.

“D’you need a ride home?” Rose asked suddenly, turning back to him as Robert took her money and began counting it out. “After all, you were the one that could actually fix the fu- er, darn thing.”

John blinked at her in surprise. “What?” he replied blankly. Surely she hadn’t just almost used the word fu--

“Do you need a ride home?” she enunciated more slowly, drawing the words out and interrupting the thought. He shot her a glare at her tone, but she just smirked at him. Clearly he needed to up the potency of his glares if a mere slip of a girl could just ignore one like that. Strange, though. That same look had sent several of the other mechanics scurrying in the other direction. His estimation of her went up another notch. Bold, brassy, and unafraid of anything.

She raised an eyebrow at him and he realized she was still waiting on an answer. “If you don’t mind the grease and the oil, yeah, that’d be nice,” he hurriedly responded. Her other eyebrow rose to join the first and she looked deliberately down at the state of her own self and then back at him. He chuckled ruefully and inclined his head, acknowledging the point. Yes, she was quite possibly in a worse state than him.

Rose nodded firmly and turned back to Robert, who was waiting patiently with her change. (She was lucky that Robert was an honest sort - she’d given him far too many bills, he’d noticed.) As they finished out the sale, John went into the staff room next to the garage. Shucking the overalls, he grabbed the leather jacket hanging on the hook and shrugged it on, as always feeling a strange sense of wrongness as he adjusted the collar. He never did understand that feeling, but attributed it to the strange dreams he’d been having as of late. The coat he wore in those was different, buttons instead of a zipper for one, and it felt more like him. This one was too… greaser for his tastes, but needs must.

Rolling his eyes at the unusual ruminations over his clothing, he darted out into the garage to swipe the keys for what he now knew was actually Joan Redfern’s car before anyone else could grab them and then went back to the front office. Rose was quietly talking to Tim as she waited. He stood back for a moment and watched them interact. For all she looked like she was twenty and he was thirteen, she treated the boy almost maternally. It was in the way a soft smile crossed her face as she brushed some lint off his shirt and smoothed his hair back from where it had fallen into his eye, the way her attention was fixed solely on him as if he was the most important person in the universe at the moment. She would make an excellent mother, he thought. A vision of children with dark hair and almost-golden eyes crossed his mind’s eye.

He inhaled sharply at that thought. What kind of man was he, envisioning his children with a girl young enough to be his daughter, and one he’d just met at that? Especially when he’d sworn off any kind of relationship with any woman for the rest of his life. He’d loved and lost once already and wasn’t keen to get to a point where that experience could ever happen again. He cleared his throat, both to get rid of the emotion his mental wanderings had left him with and to get Rose’s attention.

Her face brightened when she saw him. He was helpless to do anything but smile back at her, her happiness catching. He strode over to them and dangled the keys in front of her face. “One car, ready to go,” he said.

“Great!” Rose replied cheerfully, snatching them from his hand with surprisingly quick reflexes. She smirked at his taken-aback look and caught his hand, tugging him out of the shop and over to the car. Dropping his hand before he’d managed to do more than look askance in her direction at her actions, she clambered into the driver’s seat and left him to slide into the passenger seat. She buckled her seatbelt and turned the car on, waiting until he’d clipped his own belt. She looked down at the gearshift, studying it for a minute before suddenly going very still. Her face turned bright red.

“Rose?” John asked, concerned.

She didn’t look at him, choosing to stare hard at the gearshift. “I just thought about something. I, um, don’t know how to drive a car like this.”

John stared at her. “What?”

“I don’t know how to drive this car,” she repeated. “S‘not mine, y’know. S’Mrs. Redfern’s, and even she doesn’t drive it. Mr. Hutchinson, the driver, brought it in. But he’s sick, like I said, so I told him I’d come and get it.” Her cheeks turned even redder, if that was possible. “Didn’t think about the fact that I had no idea how to drive it. Just wanted to get out of that school for a little bit.”

For a moment, it was quiet. Rose still refused to look at him and he was still trying to get over his shock. Then the absurdity of the situation dawned on him, and he began to laugh. Soft at first, it soon grew to a full belly laugh. It didn’t take long before Rose joined in, her bright laugh filling the car’s interior even more than his own bass chuckles.

It took longer for him to get himself under control than he thought it would. It didn’t help that catching each other’s eye would send them into a fresh gale of laughter. They were both crying by the time they were able to stop. “Oh God, my stomach,” Rose wheezed, clutching the aforementioned body part. “I’m gonna be so sore tomorrow!”

Sufficiently calmed enough, John shook his head, wiping at his eyes. There she went again with the language. He chose to leave it alone, though. Not that he would have said anything derogatory about it anyway - he  _ had  _ been a soldier, after all - but it was interesting, hearing a young girl speaking like that, especially one who worked at the finishing school. “D’you need me to drive it to Mrs. Redfern’s place?” he asked instead, watching her finally begin to put herself back together. By the way she simply pressed her lips together and nodded, he suspected that she was trying to keep any more mirth from escaping.

They switched places and John easily put the car into gear, turning onto the street and beginning the journey to Mrs. Redfern’s home. As he drove, they fell into easy conversation, the overwhelming amusement falling behind them. Rose did most of the talking, and he soon found out that she had lived in Peckham until her parents’ deaths when she was seventeen. She was sent to live with a great-aunt in St. Louis and lived there for several years. Eventually, this aunt couldn’t deal with her so-called “wild ways” (he could hear the quotation marks in her voice and see them in the roll of her eyes) and had sent her to Joan Redfern’s Finishing School for Young Ladies of Quality in the much smaller town of Calvey Creek. There were supposedly no unseemly personages to distract her there.

(He felt bad now. He’d assumed that she was a maid just because of her clothing, bearing, and, admittedly, her accent. He should have known better, no matter that it was a reasonable assumption from just about anyone. After all, you’d never know that he had a doctorate just from looking at him and his place of employment.)

“So how did you manage to get into town?” he asked curiously, turning onto the long drive up to the school. He’d met Mrs. Redfern before and found it highly unlikely that the stern woman would have let Rose go off on her own to a mechanic’s shop. That was not the place for “young ladies of quality.” And even if she had, Rose should have been dressed to the nines, not covered in dirt and who knew what else.

Rose gave him a sideways glance. “I may have walked until I hitched a ride on the back of a farm wagon haulin’ stuff.” She smirked then, and he realized how much he liked that impish look on her face. It suited her. “Allegedly.”

“Well, that explains the dirt,” he drawled. She punched him on the bicep, surprising him into letting out a startled “oi!”. She was a hard hitter and he resisted the urge to rub the afflicted spot. “And the money?”

“Oh, Mr. Hutchison gave it to me. S’got a bit of soft spot for me, for some reason. He knew I’d figure out a way to get there. Didn’t ask if I knew how to drive the car, though.”

They pulled up to the front of the school. A displeased-looking Joan Redfern waited on the front porch, a slightly contrite Mr. Hutchinson standing beside her. Rose sighed at the sight and unbuckled her seatbelt. “Well, time to face the music,” she said glumly. She looked over at him and gave him a small, surprisingly tentative smile. It was as though she’d realized just how outgoing she’d been and felt that she should pull back. “Thanks for driving the car. I had a good time.”

“Me too,” John admitted, surprising himself. He really did have fun, he realized. He unbuckled his seatbelt as well and got out of the car, walking around the front to open her door. Her smile grew more confident and she accepted his hand to help her out, completing the motion much more primly than he would have thought. It appeared that the finishing lessons weren’t a complete waste of time after all, no matter what she thought.

“Miss Tyler!” Mrs. Redfern exclaimed, aghast. “What  _ have _ you been doing running around town looking like that? No,” she continued, holding out a hand to stop whatever Rose might have said. “Never mind. For now, I think you need to thank Mr. Smith for being so kind as to look after you and then go inside and clean up. We will talk later.” The stern look that accompanied these last words promised a lecture, and not a short one.

Rose sighed again, but straightened up obediently, turning so her back was to the older woman, and recited, “Thank you, Mr. Smith, for being so kind as to look after me.” Her tone was a direct contrast to her actions, that tongue-in-teeth grin and a rather spectacular eyeroll appearing briefly before her features tightened in concern. “D’you need a ride home? I’m sure we can get somebody to-”

“Miss Tyler,” Mrs. Redfern barked. “It will be taken care of. Come inside now, please.” Rose scowled at her words.

“Nah, I’ll be fine,” John said easily as she turned toward the porch. She looked back at him. “You should probably get in before you get in even more trouble,” he added, grinning at her. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

Rose smiled at him again. “Count on it,” she said, and if the words made him shiver just a little bit in anticipation, well, that was his business. He watched her as she went inside the house, followed shortly by Mrs. Redfern, who gave him a suspicious look. The woman hadn’t liked him when they first met at the church and for some reason, this incident apparently hadn’t endeared him to her any more. He waved cheekily and she huffed, not-quite-slamming the front door.

Mr. Hutchinson stayed outside. When the door swung shut, he marched downstairs to John. “Sorry about that, John,” the man said, offering a hand to him.

John shook it immediately, studying him closely. “You don’t look too sick to me, Will,” he commented mildly.

Will didn’t answer for a moment, his eyes distant. When he finally spoke, it was slow and almost halting. “I had a sister, once,” he said. “A year younger than me. She was always so full of ideas about what she wanted to do and see as a child. She would have made a fine explorer. She told me once she felt imprisoned, having to do what society told her to. She did everything she was supposed to - got married, had a child, everything that was expected of her. But she was never really herself again after that.” He looked over at John. “Rose reminds me so much of her. I don’t want her to end up like Helen did. As it is, Mrs. Redfern isn’t too far from expelling her, so if I can give her a little bit of freedom before she has to go back to that bat of a great-aunt, I’ll do it. Anyway,” he said, clearing his throat and ignoring the alarmed sound John let out, “I’ll give you a ride back into town, if you’d like.”

“Thanks, Will,” John replied, scrambling for words. Rose, kicked out of the finishing school? Going to back to St. Louis?

They were quiet on the way back into town. Will was understandably subdued after his confession. John was subdued as well, but for a different reason. The reaction he’d had to Will’s off-hand comment about Rose’s almost certain future expulsion concerned him. Surely there was no reason to get all worked up about her returning to her great-aunt. It wasn’t any of his business - he barely knew her. But despite knowing Rose for all of perhaps 45 minutes at most, he knew that Will’s assessment of her was spot on. That spirit needed to be preserved, not beaten down and molded into society’s view of the perfect woman. She was perfect as is.

At that thought, he groaned and let his head fall into his hands, ignoring Will’s concerned glance. He liked her, this young girl with the golden eyes. He’d thought about children with her, for goodness’ sake. He’d been more content in her presence than he’d felt in years, the weight of guilt of being the only survivor from his family forgotten for that precious three-quarters of an hour. Even Charley wouldn’t have been enough to distract him from something like that and he’d loved her dearly.

What was he going to do now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, so many kudos and comments! Hopefully this chapter met expectations!
> 
> (I edited this uber quickly, so if there are mistakes, let me know and I'll get around to fixing them eventually.)
> 
> Give me a kudo if you liked it, or even a review if you're having a fantastic day!
> 
> ~tp


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose contemplates her life.

Rose sat in the chair in front of Mrs. Redfern’s desk, clean, respectably dressed in a dress (slightly wrinkled, as it’d been pulled from a stack of dirty laundry at the foot of her bed), and listening with half an ear to the woman’s lecture. It was something about propriety and respect and a bunch of other stuff that she didn’t really care about right now. Well, to be fair, she thought, she’d never really cared about it. She’d grown up on the Estates, after all. Mrs. Redfern would probably die of shock if she told her about running away to live with Jimmy Stone at age sixteen, then running away to live with the Doctor at age nineteen.

“Miss Tyler, are you listening?” the woman demanded suddenly.

“Yes, Mrs. Redfern,” Rose lied, focusing her full attention in the here and now.

Mrs. Redfern sighed. “Miss Tyler, you have put me in a difficult position,” she said. “I run a school for young ladies of quality, you understand, and I cannot have any of my girls running around town looking like some sort of, of trollop. You continually leave the school without letting anyone know where you are going, and then you show up in men’s clothes, looking less than respectable.”

Rose reminded herself that she couldn’t give the older woman a good slap, that she was in the 1950s and society here was very different from the early 2000s.

“In addition, you have had an extremely difficult time fitting in,” Mrs. Redfern continued, unaware of her violent thoughts. “You have barely made acquaintances, let alone friends, in the school. In fact, I am not sure that you have even tried to do so.”

Unfair, Rose thought. She  _ had _ tried, but all the girls here had airs and graces, to quote her mother. She would have much preferred befriending the staff, but they were apparently strictly informed to keep to themselves and not interfere with any of the girls there. Only Mr. Hutchinson had responded to her attempts, and even that was more fatherly than she would have liked. Once again, she had to remind herself that it was the 1950s and it would more than likely be looked down on if the relationship was anything else.

“Suffice to say, Miss Tyler, that you are staying here only by my grace. If I hear one more thing about you, I am afraid you will have to be expelled. I will not have my school’s reputation compromised. Do you understand?”

Rose nodded meekly and left for her room when the woman dismissed her, thinking furiously. She couldn’t be expelled, she thought. She would have no place to stay; the TARDIS was running on emergency power only, so the only room available at the moment was the console room. No bathroom, no bedroom, not even a cot. It seemed she would have to play nicely if she wanted to be able to keep an eye on the Doctor without there being too much suspicion of her presence in the small, tightly-knit community of Calvey Creek.

She opened the door to her closet of a room and entered, shutting it behind her and leaning against it with a sigh. She was so tired of the 1950s, but there was still another month to go before she could safely open the watch and return the Doctor to himself. It was amazing that nothing had happened yet in the two months they’d been stuck here. She’d only been able to catch a few glimpses of him over the past sixty-odd days, mostly at church (attended every Sunday morning by the students of the finishing school) where it just wasn’t done for young ladies to seek out older men who happened to be single, apparently. It wasn’t until today that she’d even been able to speak to him. Sweet Mr. Hutchinson, letting her think he was sick so she could go into town and get the car. Of course, he didn’t know that the whole reason the car had to be taken in for maintenance in the first place had anything to do with her. Being involved with a gearhead at one point in her life had enlightened her to things she could do to sabotage a car without messing it up beyond repair. (It didn’t help her with knowing how to drive the damn thing, though.)

She lay down on her bed, not bothering to unpin her hair or change into something more comfortable, instead fishing under her pillow for the small, silver fob watch. Bringing it up to her ear, she closed her eyes to focus all her attention on the faint whispers she could sometimes hear. The Time Lord consciousness within didn’t usually talk beyond a few repeated words. She was both pleased and embarrassed to realize that one of them was her name, though she didn’t get her hopes up too much. There was also “be careful” and a strange word she didn’t know, probably from his language, both of which were said the most often, along with her name.

Tonight, however, the whispers were worrying clear. They spoke of something coming, and warned her to keep the watch close. It took a long while for them to settle back down into their usual rendition of “Rose, be careful,” and that one word she didn’t know. When they finally faded, she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling thoughtfully. She’d have to make a trip to the TARDIS tomorrow to rewatch the video with instructions that the Doctor had left for her. She knew it by heart, of course, but it never failed to calm her.

For now, she thought, she would focus on doing her best to fit in with the other girls in the school. She didn’t know how she would do that, considering their disdainful treatment of her from the beginning, but she would have to figure out something. She couldn’t afford to be thrown out. The Doctor couldn’t afford for her to be thrown out. John Smith couldn’t either, even if he didn’t know it.

Speaking of John Smith… He certainly seemed to like her. She’d seen him glancing at her more than once as he drove, in a manner that she associated more with human males than Time Lords. Of course, he was a human male at this point. But he seemed to be genuinely interested in her as a person and not just as a potential conquest. Not that she thought the human version of him would do something like that. He’d said so himself, in the video. John Smith was ultimately just the Doctor pared down to his most basic personality. She just wondered if that included how he felt for her.

Going by the evidence, the Doctor at least cared very deeply for her. He’d almost died for her. Would have, and been reborn as a new man, something that had surprised her. She’d known that he was over 900 by this point (over a thousand, more likely - it was difficult to keep track of time in the TARDIS), but she hadn’t thought about how that was achieved. She’d assumed that he’d just aged really slowly and was just now approaching the front end of looking middle-aged. But no, apparently he could die, but his body would be replaced. Same person underneath it all, but most of the surface details would change. Looks, preferences, fashion sense.

(Not the love of bananas though, according to him. The big things stayed, and that, Rose Tyler, was one of them, he’d told her very seriously.)

She was thankful that it hadn’t happened though. Oh, she would have still loved him (yes, loved; she given up denying that to herself long ago), but there would have been confusion and pain and grieving that might have damaged their relationship and put them two steps back.

Of course, their relationship had already changed beyond repair, thanks to the events on the Game Station. The Doctor was so much more tactile now, always finding an excuse to hold her hand (all right, that wasn’t new), or cup her cheek, or put an arm around her waist or shoulder, or brush her hair out of her face. The hugs had gotten longer. And she still remembered that kiss from when he took the Time Vortex out of her. She was fairly sure she wasn’t supposed to remember that, judging from the panicked way his eyes had widened when she asked. He’d blustered on about it being the best way to remove the Vortex, the tips of his ears reddening as his eyes darted around the console room looking at anything but her, but she rather doubted that. She knew good and well that his telepathy worked best by placing his fingers on a person’s temples, and as far as she was concerned removing the Vortex certainly fell under the realm of telepathy. But she’d let it go, seeing how anxious he was about the whole thing.

And the day he’d turned human, he’d actually run a thumb across her lip to keep her from biting it before kissing her forehead and drawing her into a long hug, one more reminiscent of lovers comforting one another than friends doing the same. He’d told her she was beautiful again, but this time there was no caveat, no “for a human.” He’d admitted his blunder with that comment, cupping her cheek and looking so intensely at her that she thought he would finally,  _ finally _ kiss her. But he’d shut his eyes and drawn away, looking regretful.

She knew what was going on, of course. She might have a tiny ape brain, but she wasn’t stupid. Over 900 years old and still a long ways to go, and here she was with a ninety-year lifespan, if she was lucky. He would have to watch her grow old and either A, die from old age if she were lucky, or B, die from being too slow to continue their adventures, because she wasn’t ever leaving him. She couldn’t imagine being in that same position, watching someone she loved grow old while she stayed the same.

So yes, she understood. That didn’t mean that she liked it, this blowing hot and cold, but she understood. It was hard enough to keep a charged moment from becoming anything more, and they had their fair share of those after life-or-death adventures. That adrenaline rush they both craved didn’t just fade as soon as they made it to the safety of the TARDIS, and what better way to continue that high than a hard and fast shag on the jumpseat? But it was far better to continue being his best friend than have to leave because they fell into each other’s arms thanks to their lack of inhibitions. Not that he would make her leave, but she would feel like she had to, or else resentment might grow between them and they would part under far worse terms. She promised herself that she wouldn’t take anything more than he could give. So she kept her distance on those occasions, always keeping a few steps of space between them and not meeting his eyes, since that usually made it worse. She wondered once if it hurt him that she did that, but then she’d caught him watching her with a sad sort of acceptance. That told her that she was doing the right thing. Even if it hurt.

‘But what about John Smith?’ she wondered, getting up to change into some pajamas. He was apparently interested in her. And he was the Doctor. So what was she supposed to do if he wanted to start something? Of course, he might not, considering that they were in 1954 and the age gap was probably a little much for the time. Not that he would be the one fielding the majority of the rude comments. She snorted in derision as she hung up her dress and went to flip the light off. She’d already gotten enough snarky remarks as it was, with her hair obviously not naturally blonde and her preference of trousers to dresses and her “outlandish” behavior. She would be considered a gold digger at best, no matter that John Smith was a mechanic who probably didn’t make much. There would be opposition from all sides, and she was sure he realized that. This all was also assuming that she wasn’t seeing things, either.

Rose sighed again, falling back into bed and crawling under the covers. She wished she had her mum to talk to, or Jack. Surely they would have good advice for her. But her mum was decades away in 2006, with the super phone not an option due to the TARDIS being on emergency power. And Jack was rebuilding the earth in 200,100, if the Doctor was to be believed. She wasn’t so sure she did believe him, but who was she to say anything different? Still, she had a sense that he was lying, or at least withholding most of the truth. Something about her friend niggled at the back of her mind, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

Leave tomorrow’s trouble to tomorrow, she told herself sternly. Sleep now.

Despite her words, she found herself worrying far into the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm changing up the updating schedule from what I originally decided. NaNoWriMo is coming up quickly, and I still need to finish this story before I plunge into a brand new project. So updates will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays, barring any unforeseen events!
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter!
> 
> ~tp


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John has dreams and thinks the Doctor is a coward.
> 
> Rose realizes that John is interested in more than just friendship.

_ He stood there, eyes closed, waiting for his death. _

_ “EX-TER-” _

_ The sound of the TARDIS reached his ears and he smiled as he imagined it, the sound of his oldest friend in the universe reaching out to give him peace in his last moments. _

_ “ALERT, TARDIS MATERIALIZING!” _

_ He opened his eyes in confusion. Surely that was just his imagination, right? But he turned around and felt the breeze that heralded his ship’s arrival. He watched in complete befuddlement as the TARDIS finally became completely opaque. _

_ Then the doors burst open in a flood of golden light. A woman stood outlined in the doorway, then disappeared only to reappear right in front of him. _

_ Fear coursed through him. He knew that face. _

_ Rose. _

_ “What have you done?” he cried. _

_ She looked down on him, serene and distant. “I looked into the TARDIS,” she said, voice ethereal, “and the TARDIS looked into me.” _

_ No! _

John shot up out of bed. He was out of bed and halfway through dialing the number to the finishing school when he realized just what the hell he was doing and dropped the handset into the cradle. He sat back in his kitchen chair and ran a shaking hand over his face.

He’d had other dreams like it, ones filled with danger and excitement and people dying. There had even been several featuring Rose in danger (that one with the Dalek came to mind, and he shuddered), but he’d never had such a visceral response to one of those before. However, for a moment he truly believed that Rose was in mortal danger. Absorbing the Time Vortex would kill her and yet she stood there with absolutely no cares.

He glanced at the clock and groaned when he saw the hands taunting him with the terrible sight of 5:37 A.M. He usually got up at six, so there was no point in going back to bed. Instead, he went over to the desk shoved in the corner of the room and retrieved a small journal and pen, sitting back down at the table and opening the book to a blank page.

Ever since the first time he woke up gasping and crying, he began to commit these strange dreams to paper. Most weren’t as bad as that first one, the one where he, or rather his alter ego, the Doctor, sacrificed his entire planet to stop a war. There were pictures drawn amidst his neat scrawl, images of beautiful cities and spreading vistas, of people laughing and dancing and adventuring, singing towers and red-gold skies and oceans of the deepest blue.

He saw the many faces of one man, all the companions that traveled with him. Some left him, some he left, others died. But the most recent one, and the one the Doctor felt most strongly about, looked like Rose Tyler. He loved her more than anything else, except for perhaps his ship, and that only because the TARDIS had been with him throughout almost all his nine hundred(ish) years of life.

And that was the problem to the Doctor. Rose would live a tenth of his lifespan, if they were both lucky, and then he’d lose her, and he’d be all alone again. But no matter how hard he tried, he continually lapsed into treating her as more than his best mate, being overly affectionate, bordering on loving. Then he would realize what he was doing and pull away, leaving both their heads spinning with attraction and regret.

John harrumphed disdainfully as he wrote down the last of his dream. The Doctor, he decided, was a coward. Better to have loved and lost, rather than not loved at all. True, he’d decided not to become involved with any other woman after Charley had been killed, but he didn’t regret a thing about their relationship, other than that she’d died at all. The Doctor would regret not taking the chance. He’d miss her the same whether they were friends or lovers.

He wouldn’t make the same mistake. Unless he was very much mistaken, Rose Tyler was attracted to him, judging by the sideways glances and the constant flirting she did the entire drive to the school. Heaven knew why - there were plenty of good-looking young men in and around the town. He didn’t have clue why she might prefer this daft old face over theirs, but he wasn’t going to question it. He certainly wasn’t going to let her slip through his fingers if he could help it. It was time to move on, and he hoped Charley would be pleased that he finally was, even if it took him fourteen years to do it. She’d always said he took too long to think on things. She’d probably be in shock with how quickly he was moving in regards to Rose Tyler now.

His alarm clock rang and he jumped, the pen leaving a streak over some of his neat print. He scowled at the mark and shut the journal a bit harder than necessary, rising to put both it and the pen away in the small drawer under the desktop. Then he strode off to the bathroom to start his morning and get ready for work, working on a plan to gain Rose’s affection permanently all the while.

***

If she’d wondered about it before, Rose was now completely certain that John Smith fancied her. He’d come around two nights later, asking to speak with her again. They sat in the parlor, unchaperoned (which was a surprise to her, considering Mrs. Redfern’s views on male callers) save for Emily, the maid, who covertly dusted knick-knacks and the like on the mantelpiece over the fireplace and around the room. He wanted to know how her talk with Mrs. Redfern had gone, and how she was after the lecture that she’d no doubt gotten.

Rose was touched by his thoughtfulness. Not allowed to fling her arms around him as she wanted, she instead reached over and placed her hand over his, squeezing it gently as she smiled, tongue-in-teeth. She didn’t miss the way his gaze darted to her mouth for slightly longer than was strictly polite before traveling back to her eyes. He smiled shyly back and flipped his hand so he could intertwine his fingers with hers and squeeze back. 

They stayed that way for over an hour, speaking of anything that caught their fancy. Any time Mrs. Redfern came to check on them, Emily, who was standing close to the entry to the parlor, would cough or sneeze or clear her throat to let them know ahead of time. Despite the rules of friendships across the social classes at the school, the fact that Rose had even tried had endeared her to most of the workers there. Most tried to protect her as much as they could, drawing the schoolmistress’ attention toward other things when she disappeared from the school for a few hours (she tried to visit the TARDIS as much as possible, which wasn’t often) or covering social gaffes (it was amazing how often those  _ did _ happen) by committing one of their own. Whenever Emily made a sound, they would hastily separate their hands and scoot away to a respectable distance from each other just as Mrs. Redfern would come in.

John left with the promise of seeing her again. True to his word, he called again two days later, this time with an invitation to walk around town. She was equal parts amused and shocked to realize that he was actually trying to date her, going by the dating rules of when he would have been a teenager (if he’d been born human, anyway). It gave them the chance to talk, unlike going to the theater. There was a drive-in theater in a town not too far away, and some of the girls would go there on their own dates. They would come back giggly and red, and though Mrs. Redfern sighed at them, she said nothing. If Rose had done the same thing, she was sure she’d be lectured.

It was on this walk around town that she learned that John was a widower, his wife killed in the Christmas Blitz in Manchester. He’d said it almost mechanically, as though he were afraid that this new information would scare her off. She simply squeezed his arm in sympathy and walked on. (She wondered if this Charley was another companion of his, one that he chose to have a relationship with before the Time War. It was silly to think that she and Jack were the only companions after all, and, as the Doctor had said, she could assume that he’d “danced” at some point in 900 years. She had to quell the - irrational, she knew - jealousy at this point.)

The morning after the walk, they went to church services. The girls were always near the front of the room, where they sat as still as possible, lest they draw the attention of the little old ladies who sat right behind them. John, the lucky bastard, could just sidle in right as services started and find a seat in the back. Halfway through, she felt a familiar gaze on the back of her neck; risking yet another lecture, she craned her head back as far as she dared to see if she could get a glimpse of him. She was just able to catch his eye when one of the old biddies poked her in the shoulder and gave her a warning look. Turning around with a silent huff, she faced the pulpit once again with a scowl that she had to work hard to keep when she heard a muffled cough that she just knew was hiding a laugh.

He apologized to her later that day, at the dinner the church hosted, though she knew he was anything but sorry. She recognized that smirk, after all, whether it graced John’s face or the Doctor’s. Their actions - she slapped him on the arm before he caught her hand and weaved their fingers together - garnered some strange looks from the gossips sitting at the tables, but neither of them noticed. Even if they had, they wouldn’t have cared. There were already rumors going around about John Smith and Rose Tyler “going steady,” though they both thought themselves too old for that term. Apparently, that thing that defined the Doctor and Rose’s relationship - (“Are they together? They  _ aren’t _ ? You’re kidding!”) - defined John and Rose’s just as much.

That night, before Rose climbed up to her small bedroom, Mrs. Redfern called her into her office. The older woman was strangely agitated, picking up papers and shuffling them, flitting around the room and picking things up before replacing them. When Rose sat down, the woman stayed standing.

“Miss Tyler, I understand that you have seen John Smith several times over the past week,” she began.

“Yes,” Rose said, wondering where this was going.

Mrs. Redfern actually wrung her hands. “Do you see yourself marrying him?” she asked abruptly.

“What?” Rose yelped, sitting up straight suddenly. “What do you mean?”

“Miss Tyler… Rose,” Mrs. Redfern said fretfully. “I do not usually involve myself in my girls’ romantic lives aside from making sure they behave as they should, but this is a special case. Mr. Smith is old enough to be your father. There will be talk, and not anything good. Surely you could find someone younger, more suitable? He’s just a mechanic, after all. He won’t be able to provide the standard of life that you are used to. Surely your great-aunt will not approve.”

Rose closed her eyes tightly, willing herself to calm down before she said or did something that she would regret. She still had another three weeks before it would be safe for the Doctor to return. She took a deep breath, and then another.

Finally, she opened her eyes and focused on the other woman. When she spoke, her voice was even, quiet, and absolutely glacial. “Mrs. Redfern, thank you for your concern, but I know what I’m doin’.” She held up a hand as Mrs. Redfern went to speak. Though she didn’t know it, her eyes grew more golden, nearly glowing, and it was that which silenced the older woman, not Rose’s hand. “Quite frankly, I don’t care what my great-aunt thinks. In the end, it’s my life and no one else’s. I know he’s old enough to be my father, but he’s also one of the only men I’ve met who treat me as more than just someone who’ll eventually be their maid, cook, and bedwarmer.” She ignored Mrs. Redfern’s shocked gasp at her crassness. “An’ if he ever asks me to marry him, I’ll say yes.” She raised a brow. “If that’s all?” Mrs. Redfern nodded silently, so Rose swept out of the room, head held high until she reached the safety of her room. As soon as the door was closed, she sank down and burst into tears.

Everything she’d said was true. She would marry John Smith in a heartbeat, and she knew he’d do the same. They could have a brilliant life together. They could get a house with a white picket fence and a dog and 2.5 children. They could grow old together, with no worries about anything extraordinary. It would be… fantastic.

But it was impossible. In less than a month, he would become the Doctor again and all this romance would be gone, left behind with the human version of himself. And she couldn’t live with him and not tell him everything that had ever happened to her. It wasn’t right, to either of them.

With that thought, she stood up and straightened her shoulders. She would enjoy this while it lasted, and when it ended? Well, she would treasure it in her heart for the rest of her life and hope that she could return to treating him how she did before.

She got ready for bed and slid under the covers, her hand burrowing under her pillow for the fob watch. She could hear the whispers, but it was only her name tonight. With the comforting sound of her Doctor in her head, she slowly drifted off into a restless sleep, dreaming of children with dark hair and golden eyes and two hearts.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that happened! There are a few chapters that are shorter than I'd like, but the natural cutoff points aren't anything I can really control.
> 
> I actually did more research than I'd planned looking into how people might date in the late '30s, early '40s. It's pretty entertaining. Actually, when I was in the middle of this research, I found a list (don't ask me where it is - it's been nearly two years) and used it as a basis for a DBZ one-shot for a friend. I'll get that over here eventually.
> 
> Also, I definitively placed John in Manchester, along with Charley (a companion of the 8th Doctor, if you don't already know that) in 1940, specifically because Charley had to die (sorry Charley!).
> 
> The Christmas Blitz was a real thing. Manchester was an industrial city and an important port for the UK at this time (maybe now too? I'm a history major, so anything after 1950 I'm like uhhhhhhh), so it was a focus of the Luftwaffe. It was hit several times during the early years of the war, but the Christmas Blitz (22-23 December 1940) was the worst attack, killing nearly 700 people and injuring over 2000 more.
> 
> I'll get off my soapbox now and leave you alone. XD Have a great day!
> 
> ~tp


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite immortal shows up!

### 

_ You will find your cousin Rose in the town of Calvey Creek, Missouri. _

Jack Harkness reread the paper that had been tucked away in his pocket for what seemed to be the thousandth time as he hitched his bag over his shoulder. How the person who’d mailed the short missive had known both where he was and who he was looking for was a mystery, but he wasn’t going to question it. Really, he was looking for the Doctor, but Rose in a place out of her time meant that the Time Lord wouldn’t be far away.

He ignored the covert looks from the locals, instead trying to decide where he might find Rose. There wasn’t a lot in this town: the requisite church, a few school buildings, a corner store, a grocer’s, a bank. There was a mechanic’s shop at the end of the street, and further down there was a sign advertising some sort of girls’ school in front of a small restaurant-cum-motel. Despite the small size, however, Jack was feeling a bit lost as to where to start. It was beginning to get dark, too, so he probably wouldn’t be able to find her tonight anyway.

“Oi, mate, you need some help?”

No. No way. No way could he be this lucky right off the bat. Luck was  _ not _ in Jack Harkness’ vocabulary anymore, not since the Game Station. But as he turned around to face the voice, he saw that goofy grin that he’d know anywhere. The Doctor had found him, not the other way around. The blue eyes gazed at him, head cocked to one side as he studied him.

Jack opened his mouth, about to say something scathing, but stopped. The Doctor wasn’t looking at him like he knew him. And the eyes were wrong. Oh, the color was the same, but they lacked the depth Jack remembered, the age. The clothing was different too - he blended in well with this decade, something that the Doctor would have never deigned to do. He wore his jumpers, jeans, and leather jacket everywhere, no matter what. Something was wrong here.

So instead he smiled, resettling the bag on his shoulder and offering a hand. “Captain Jack Harkness,” he introduced, watching the other man carefully.

Something flickered in those eyes, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. “John Smith,” the Doctor responded, gripping his hand with a firm grip. Jack noticed the temperature of his hand was too warm, and as he let go, he let his fingers graze the wrist in such a way that he could feel his pulses. No, pulse. He had only one pulse.

What the hell was going on here?

“Do you need some help?” John (there was no way he could be the Doctor) asked again, studying him more closely this time.

“What?” Jack replied absently, still trying to figure out what was happening. The words registered. “Oh! Yeah, I’m trying to find my cousin. Her name’s Rose Tyler.”

“Rose?” John repeated in surprise. “Don’t tell me Mrs. Redfern kicked her out of that stupid school already?”

“School? Kicked out?”

John snorted and gestured to follow him. Jack nodded and they headed toward the mechanic’s shop. “Her crazy great-aunt put her in the finishing school here in town. Apparently she’s not too cut out for it; accordin’ to the driver there, Rose is on her last chance.” The blue eyes glanced sideways at him, and Jack wasn’t surprised to see the same look of protection in them as the Doctor would have had.

“I didn’t realize Great-Aunt Eleanora sent her here until a few weeks ago,” Jack said, scrambling. Rose at a finishing school in 1954? The Doctor apparently human with no memories of Jack? There was a story behind this, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear it or not. “I got a letter telling me she was here, but it didn’t say why she was here in the first place. She and I lost touch a while back, so I wanted to see how she was. She’s always been my favorite cousin, after all.”

John nodded, smiling. “She’s fantastic,” he agreed. “Let me tell Robert what’s goin’ on an’ I’ll take you to the school.”

“Thanks.” Jack watched as John walked into the shop and speak briefly with a man who must be Robert.

“The man who lives forever,” a voice said from behind him. Jack jumped and whirled around, barely keeping from grabbing his gun and pointing it in the kid’s face. “She didn’t mean to,” the kid continued. “She don’t know she did it.”

“How do you know about that?” Jack demanded.

The boy shrugged, the too-big leather jacket nearly falling off in the process. He rolled his shoulders to hike it back up. He looked like a boy trying to be a man in that overlarge coat, but his eyes were old. “I just do. I know things. Things like Mr. Smith ain’t all there. Somethin’s missin’. There’s a big hole in his head where somethin’ should be.”

Jack stared down at the boy. Telepathic, or something like it, he decided. Possibly a bit clairvoyant, if he knew how this whole immortal mess had gotten started. Before he could say anything, however, John appeared next to him. “Hey, Tim,” he greeted, clapping the boy on the shoulder. Tim grinned at him “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“Nah, got out a while ago.” His smile turned sly. “Goin’ to see Miss Rose again, Mr. Smith?” His question was filled with all the innuendo he could muster put into it, despite looking all of twelve, thirteen at the most. Jack raised his eyebrow and turned to John with a concentrated look of mild curiosity mixed with just a hint of threat.

The tips of John’s ears turned pink as he avoided their eyes. “None o’ your business,” he snapped. Tim laughed. Jack snorted; apparently the Doctor, Time Lord or not, was still trailing after Rose like a lovestruck teenager. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same, he mused.

“Whatever you say, man,” the teenager said, smirking. He raised two fingers and gave a lazy salute, making his way to the shop. “See ya, Mr. Smith, Buck Rogers.”

“Buck Rogers?” John asked, pointing to a car close to the shop. The two men got in, Jack slinging his pack into the back seat.

“I’m just that cool,” Jack shrugged, grinning. There was one good thing about living life this way - he didn’t have to worry about not knowing all the pop culture and lingo. Buck Rogers wasn’t the most terrible thing he could have been compared to. John rolled his eyes and started the car, pulling out into the street and making his way toward the school.

The drive didn’t take more than ten minutes, and that only because the school was on the opposite side of town from the shop. The two men stayed quiet, both lost in their own thoughts. From the way John kept glancing at him, Jack knew he was dying to ask questions, probably about Rose. He didn’t know how much he’d be able to answer, figuring that he’d just play the older cousin card. He looked about ten years old than her, or he had the last time they were together, so they probably wouldn’t have played together as children. However, John kept silent, so there was no need to spin any stories just yet.

For his part, Jack wondered how Rose would react when she saw him. He had no idea how long it had been for her or if she even knew he was alive to begin with. The Doctor tended to try to shield her from as much unpleasantness as possible, a fact that she’d griped about to him more than once. Jack commiserated with her out loud, but privately he was usually with the Doctor on that one. As much as she thought she was grown up, Rose was incredibly naive in some ways. He only hoped that her acting skills would be up to par with the shock.

As they pulled up to the small school, they were surprised to see a group of people standing on the front porch. All were equipped with flashlights and were huddled around someone in the center. The rumble of the engine turned some heads, but a sharp word from whoever the leader was pulled their attention back. The two men exchanged a worried glance and got out of the car.

Upon seeing John, some of the people exchanged uncomfortable glances. Jack felt a small frisson of fear rush down his spine at the sight. The Doctor had called Rose his most jeopardy-friendly companion on more than one occasion, and somehow he just knew that she was the reason for this gathering. John, it seemed, had noticed the looks as well and began pushing past people without apology. The crowd began to part ahead of him as those in front heard the commotion behind them.

The person in the middle turned out to be an older blonde woman. Jack assumed that this was the Mrs. Redfern John had mentioned earlier - she had the look of a schoolmistress, right down to the frazzled air of one who had lost a student and wasn’t quite sure where they could be. When she saw the two men striding toward her, she downright scowled. When they came within hearing distance of her, she called, “I’m afraid Miss Tyler isn’t available at the moment, Mr. Smith. She seems to have disappeared. Again.”

John’s face darkened, so much of the Oncoming Storm in his look that Jack felt it prudent to interrupt. “Disappeared?” he repeated. At the woman’s inquiring look he added, “Jack Harkness, ma’am. Rose’s cousin.”

“Her cousin? Well, then this makes things much more simple, Mr. Harkness,” Mrs. Redfern replied, inexplicably smiling. Seeing the rest of group murmuring among themselves at his words, she grasped his arm and led him a short distance away from the others. John followed. “I am sorry to say that after this latest incident, Miss Tyler will no longer be welcome to stay with this school. You can take charge of her tomorrow and take her back to her great-aunt. In the meantime,” she continued, raising her voice over the twin indignant exclamations of John and Jack, “we need to find her and bring her back here.” She turned and went back to the group, pulling a map out of her pocket and shaking it open.

As Mrs. Redfern gave out assignments for all those assembled, Jack’s mind raced. How the hell was he supposed to take care of Rose right now? The TARDIS was obviously out of the question; there was no way Rose would be hanging out in a 1950s finishing school if she could stay onboard the TARDIS, what with all the amenities there. He didn’t have much money on him; despite the fact that he was actually fairly well off despite the Great Depression twenty years ago, it took time to route that much money to a new bank and make it so he could use it quickly. He might have enough to get a room at the bed and breakfast he saw for a week or so, if he was lucky. People would talk with the two of them being young (ha!) and single, even with the cover story of being cousins. Then again, Rose was apparently getting kicked out of finishing school, so people would talk anyway. Until they could figure something out, that would have to do. 

The schoolmistress interrupted his thoughts. “Mr. Harkness, I know that you’ve just arrived and you don’t know the area, but we have one more section to search,” she said, pointing at a spot on the map she held. “It isn’t very big. Could you please take a look there?”

Jack nodded silently, taking a brief look at the map and memorizing it. It was only half a mile or so wide, and about that long, so it wouldn’t take much time. Then he could get back to worrying about a permanent decision for his new dilemma.

***

Rose pulled the little-used Yale key out from under her shirt and fit it into the lock, letting herself into the TARDIS. She didn’t have many opportunities to slip away, something that had become even more true as of late. Ever since she and Mrs. Redfern had had their discussion about John, the older woman had been watching her like a hawk. Rose knew she was just waiting to catch her out for something so she could kick her out. After all, she didn’t want her precious school’s reputation ruined and a wild child like Rose would do just that. As a result, it’d been at least a week since she’d been able to come visit.

She called it a visit, though it was just as much an escape. Here, she could be Rose Tyler, time traveller, instead of Rose Tyler, 1954 finishing school student. Only here could she wear her grungiest, most comfortable clothing and leave her hair unstyled and apply copious amounts of makeup if she really wanted to. (Although she had to admit, she was getting used to the easy routine that little to no makeup afford her. It meant more sleep in the mornings, and Rose Tyler was all about her sleep.) She could pull out the trashy novels that Jack would hand over on his return from some pleasure planet that the Doctor wouldn’t let her set foot on and not have to worry about scandalized whispers and disparaging looks.

Now though, she stood in front of the monitor, watching the Doctor’s instructions.

_ “This working?” _

There was the sound of a microphone being tapped and then the Doctor’s face came into view.

_ “All right, Rose, listen up. Before I turn human, I got a few things you need to know. One: don’t let me hurt anyone. Don’t know why I would, but I’ll have a tiny ape brain. Who knows what goes on in those things, ‘cause I sure don’t. Two: I don’t know where we’ll end up, but try not to get involved in anythin’ big. Historical events and the like. Gotta keep from drawin’ the attention of those things chasin’ us. Three: don’t let me forget you. I know the TARDIS’ll keep us together somehow, but I don’t know how close we’ll be. Try to keep close if you can. And four: keep the watch safe. I won’t know what it is, so it’s up to you. Don’t open it until three months’ve passed or you don’t have a choice. They’ll find us again if that happens. _

His face, so solemn during his instructions, broke out into the manic grin she knew and loved.

_ As soon as this is all over I promise we’ll go to Barcelona and see the noseless dogs. There’s a beach too, if you’re interested, which you probably are, knowin’ you. _

The smile softened into the one that only she got to see.

_ Be fantastic, precious girl. Thank you. _

Rose angrily wiped the tear off her face as the video shut off. ‘Stop it,’ she told herself firmly. She still had him after all, just without all the Time Lord-y bits. Like the arrogance. And the condescension. And the guilt complex. And the memories of their adventures together. The tears came faster, heedless of her attempts to stem the flow. She stumbled over to the jumpseat and curled into a ball, giving into the confusing maelstrom of feelings.

Some time later - she wasn’t exactly sure how long - she sat motionless, arms locked around her shins. She felt equal parts lightened and disgusted - lightened because she knew she’d needed a good cry, disgusted because she’d needed the cry in the first place. She’d just cried last week, for God’s sake. She knew she was under a considerable amount of stress, but still. This was just ridiculous, she decided, and stood up and stretched, ready to leave.

“Well, well, look who we have here.”

The voice made her freeze before slowly turning around to look at the person leaning against the doorframe. They were outlined by the sun, which had almost completely gone down, but she’d know that silhouette with its greatcoat and cap anywhere. “Jack?” she whispered, a shaking hand coming up to cover her mouth.

The familiar smile, bright with just a hint of lasciviousness, made her tear up all over again. “Hey, sweetheart,” he said. He held out his arms in invitation, and she barrelled into them, nearly knocking the both of them over. He grunted, but gripped her back with equal force. “Missed me then?”

“I thought you were dead!” she choked, burying her face in his shoulder. “Of course I missed you!” His whole body flinched at her words. Rose drew back and looked up at him, concerned. “Are you all right?” She looked over him more carefully now as she walked him over to the jumpseat and made him sit down.

He looked tired, and not like he just hadn’t gotten any sleep for a few days. His face had more lines than she remembered and his shoulders slumped slightly, the cocky, almost arrogant set to them that she remembered gone. His smile, something she thought hadn’t changed at first, seemed less used, almost like he hadn’t had a reason to smile for some time.

But his eyes had changed the most. They were still blue, but they were duller now, dulled by pain and what could only be age. The only other pair of eyes she’d seen that look in was the Doctor’s. Suddenly, she had a horrible feeling of what had happened to him since the Game Station. “Jack, what happened?” she pressed.

Even his sigh was exhausted. “I don’t know for sure,” he said. “But right now, I want to know what’s going on. Why doesn’t the Doctor recognize me?”

“We were bein’ chased by some aliens that steal life force, s’far as I understand,” Rose replied, her eyes narrowing. Whatever had happened to him wasn’t good, but she knew better than to push. He’d come to her when he was ready. “The Doctor had to turn human so’s they couldn’t find him. Said that they could smell him, or his life or somethin’, if he didn’t.” She dug in her pocket for the watch and showed it to him. “His Time Lord self is in here, somehow. Can’t open the watch for another two weeks or so.”

Jack swore colorfully, taking her aback. Not that Jack swearing was too unusual, but he didn’t usually do it to that extent in front of her. “Rosie, do you know if they’ll be able to follow you?” he demanded.

“The Doctor said they had a Vortex manipulator,” she admitted. “They haven’t found us yet, but that doesn’t mean they won’t.”

Jack paced around the console room for a moment, running a hand through his hair and muttering. Finally, he stopped in front of her. “I’m immortal,” he said abruptly. She blinked at him. “Daleks killed me at the Game Station, but somehow I came back to life. Got to the TARDIS just as She disappeared. Used my manipulator to try to get to your time, but it shorted out and I got stuck in 1869. Lived all the way to now.”

“Oh, Jack…” she whispered. He waved her words off nonchalantly. She wondered if it was because if he let himself stop being strong he’d break and not be able to put himself back together.

“I’m telling you because who do you think they’ll come after when they land?” he asked soberly. “I don’t want to leave you, but I don’t want to give these things eternal life either.”

A weak hum startled both of them. The TARDIS hadn’t communicated with her since She’d gone on emergency power, busy conserving Her strength for when it was needed. To hear Her now, after nearly three months, was almost odd. Of course, it had to be even stranger for Jack, who apparently hadn’t heard it in nearly a hundred years. He stroked one of the pillars lightly, his face reverent, unspeaking. Rose saw him swallow hard and guessed that he probably couldn’t speak right now.

The TARDIS hummed again, a bit more strongly, projecting a picture of a drawer close to the monitor into her mind. Frowning, Rose went over to the console, Jack following in curiosity. She opened the drawer and pulled out the two rings inside, looking at them in confusion. What did rings have to do with anything? The monitor flashed.

“Biodampers,” Jack announced, peering first at the screen and then at the rings in interest. “They hide you from anything tracking you biologically, which would include your life force or whatever you want to call it. Great!” He grabbed a ring and slipped it on a finger. He frowned. “Ugh. I forgot how much I hate wearing rings.”

Rose rolled her eyes at him and slipped her own on before looking outside. “It’s almost dark!” she gasped, darting out the door and gesturing impatiently at Jack to follow. He did so, one eyebrow raised.

“Yep,” he agreed, sounding amused. He watched as she fumbled with the key for a moment before getting it into the lock and locking the door.

“Mrs. Redfern is going to kill me,” she moaned, breaking into as much of a run as she could in the heeled shoes and dress she was forced to wear whenever she went outside the school.

Jack loped along easily beside her. “Um, I don’t think killing was what she was planning on,” he said. She looked over at him in surprise and he shrugged at her in vague apology. “I’m actually part of the search party,” he admitted. “I’m your cousin Jack Harkness, and I got a letter telling me where you were. I hadn’t seen you in a long time, so I decided to come visit and see how you were doing.”

“Well, good thing you told me before we got there!” Rose admonished him. She was slightly out of breath and cursed the stupid aliens that forced her to stay in one dull, boring place with no running for her life involved.

He grinned at her. “You’d’ve done just fine even if I hadn’t told you,” he said, sounding completely confident in her. “But she said she was kicking you out tomorrow morning and I’m supposed to bring you back to Great-Aunt Eleanora.”

“What?” she said incredulously, skidding to a halt and staring at him. “How am I supposed to watch John if I’m being sent to St. Louis? He can’t just up and come with me, no matter that he’d do it in a heartbeat!” Jack stopped as well, placing his hands on her shoulders and squeezing firmly.

“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “I’ve got enough money to put us up in that bed and breakfast in town for about a week. We can figure out what to do from there.” When she didn’t answer, he shook her slightly. “We’ll be fine, I promise. Two more weeks, right? Easy. We can do this with our eyes shut.”

Rose drew in a shuddering breath, willing herself to believe him. She let it out in a long sigh. “Right. Easy.”

She had a feeling that Jack had just jinxed it, and resolved to punch him as soon as things went south.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Jack, you should know to never say things like that...
> 
> (Two hours until midnight - still Wednesday here, so hah!)
> 
> I feel like I should make a disclaimer: there are so many comments because I do my best to respond to every. single. review. I can't tell you how much I appreciate them! (Well, I could, but I have it on good authority that poetry is not my strong suit.)
> 
> On a side note, anyone interested in a Naruto fic? Loeka got me sucked into it, the jerk, so now I'm writing it. Gah.
> 
> Kudos are awesome, as are reviews! 
> 
> ~tp


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John worries.
> 
> John does something he didn't mean to do, but he sure as hell doesn't regret it.

### 

John paced on the front porch, watching the sun fall under the horizon. He, along with the other searchers, had returned empty-handed. No one had seen hide nor hair of Rose. He looked out across the woods behind the property, wondering what kind of trouble she’d gotten herself into now.

‘What do you mean, “now”?’ his mind questioned. ‘When has she ever gotten into trouble like this?’

Memories of some of the dreams he’d had came to the forefront of his mind and he flinched. Those were thoughts he’d rather not have at the moment. A flash of Rose walking next to a Dalek, Rose in period dress with blue lips and pale face, Rose in manacles being electrocuted, Rose barely avoiding getting decapitated by a shop dummy, Rose beautiful and terrible as she stepped out of the TARDIS, wreathed in golden light--

‘STOP!’ he shouted at himself, and shoved the memories to the back of his head. That wasn’t doing him any good. It scared him how often she was in danger in those dreams, and he’d wondered more than once why it was so. The best theory he could come up with was that it was because he always rescued her and felt more like he was deserving of her. Well, the Doctor felt that way, anyway. Not that the bloke was going to do anything about it.

Coward.

Deciding to think about anything else, he looked around for Jack. The man seemed to be a decent sort, although there was something about him that made John reflexively leery. He wasn’t sure what it was that made him feel that way, but there it was. It wasn’t that he seemed untrustworthy - far from it. He really did seem to care for his cousin, despite not being in close contact for the past few years, and he’d readily agreed to help search an area he didn’t know to find her. The closest he could equate the feeling to was an itch he couldn’t quite reach, no matter what he did to scratch it.

John frowned, circling the house. Jack seemed to be a sociable kind of guy, and observant to boot. He would notice ( _ had _ noticed, if his response to Tim’s innuendo-laden statement about visiting Rose was any indication) John’s interest in Rose, and he didn’t seem like the kind of person to leave that alone. Rose was his favorite cousin, after all, even if they’d lost touch for a little while. John was sure he’d be receiving the standard “you hurt her, I hurt you” threat from Jack as soon as was possible.

Which was not right now, given that Jack was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t chatting up the girls huddled in the parlor with some of the other, younger men who had been searching, nor was he with the older generation of men in the back. He must not have come back yet, John realized, a trickle of unease running down his spine. He tried to remember exactly where Jack was searching on the property. When he couldn’t, he started to panic slightly. There weren’t any active serial killers roaming around the woods of the backwaters of Missouri, right?

“John!” His head snapped over to the woods and he zeroed in on a disheveled Rose running as fast as she could in her ridiculous shoes. Jack was walking behind her, but John had eyes only for Rose. He raced over to her, sweeping her up in his arms and hugging her for all he was worth. He didn’t worry about how inappropriate his actions were - all he cared about was making sure she was safe and unharmed.

“Rose,” he gasped out. He tried to speak more, but no words came. Instead, he buried his neck in the crook of her shoulder, breathing in her scent and trying to calm himself. His hands swept up and down her back before one wrapped around her waist and the other tilted her face up to his and he kissed her. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be, he thought vaguely, but then Rose moved her lips against his own and all thought went out the proverbial window.

He didn’t know how long they stood there, but it must have been long enough for Jack to feel awkward, for the man cleared his throat loudly. John and Rose broke apart, panting, and turned as one to glare at him. Jack didn’t look like he felt awkward - strangely, there were tears in his eyes and his smile was almost ecstatic. It quickly faded to a smirk at their expressions, and he drawled, “Much as I hate to break this up, Mrs. Redfern is heading over here.”

Rose groaned and John sighed. John looked over at her. “Did Jack tell you?” he asked tentatively. (Him, tentative! What had this woman done to him?)

Her wry smile reassured him. “Yeah,” she said, sighing. “Probably gonna have to listen to a lecture the entire time I pack.”

“Probably,” John agreed. He returned his attention to Jack. “You have a place to stay tonight?”

Jack shrugged. “Thought I’d grab a room at the motel I saw in town if they’ve got one,” he said. “If they don’t, I’ll find something.” He didn’t look too worried about not finding a place to sleep.

“Come stay at mine,” John offered. Best weasel into Jack’s good graces as much as he could. Who knew what he would do after witnessing the kiss that shouldn’t have happened yet. (He’d had plans, damn it all! But of course, Rose Tyler was a hurricane and wrecked everything. In the best way possible, of course, but still...)

Jack glanced at him, the amused look on his face saying that he knew exactly what John was doing, but before he could say anything, Mrs. Redfern was there. “Mr. Harkness, if you would be so kind as to be here at ten tomorrow morning, it would be much appreciated,” she sniffed. Jack nodded. She nodded back, and then she grasped Rose none too gently by the arm and led her away before anything else could be said or done. Rose looked back once and gave them a tongue-touched smile, like she was more amused by the proceedings than anything else.

John, who had tensed up and was about to bite Mrs. Redfern’s head off for handling his… whatever she was that way, relaxed at the sight. He watched her until she disappeared into the house, then turned to Jack, who was looking at him with some sort of strangely reminiscent amusement. “Well, let’s go,” he said uncomfortably. “All I’ve got’s a couch and a blanket, but it’s better than the ground.”

Jack’s bright blue eyes were definitely amused. “All right,” he agreed easily. Then his gaze turned harder, and despite himself, John swallowed, suddenly dry-mouthed. “But we’re having a talk when we get there. I want to know what your intentions are toward Rose Tyler.”

***

At five to ten the next morning, Rose sat waiting patiently in the parlor. The big bag from the TARDIS, stuffed to within an inch of its life despite its slightly bigger on the inside property, was sitting at her feet. The other girls were restricted to their bedrooms while one of their number was so disgracefully let go from the school. Had Rose “graduated,” so to speak, or been called home, then there would have been a special tea party prepared, where all the girls would have sent her off with hugs and kisses and tearful reminders to write, or call if their families had a phone. However, since Rose was being kicked out (‘let’s call it what it is,’ she thought), she was alone. She guessed it was supposed to be some sort of shaming thing. Too bad that she didn’t really care.

Surprisingly enough, Mrs. Redfern hadn’t said a word to her about her escapade. She barely spoke at all the entire time she helped Rose pack, which was surprising in and of itself. Rose had expected a lecture and an order to pack alone, not silence and help. She was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. A shoe which looked to be dropping soon, she realized, as Mrs. Redfern walked in. She sat down in one of the chairs opposite the sofa. For a moment, they did nothing but stare calmly at each other.

Mrs. Redfern spoke first. “I feel as though I’ve failed you, Miss Tyler,” she said sadly. “There have been other girls like you, but they eventually learned what to do and not to do. You are the first I’ve not been able to help learn how to conduct themselves appropriately in the world.” She paused. “I’m afraid for you,” she admitted baldly. “I’m afraid you will fall into the wrong circles and become just another victim of terrible decisions.”

Rose knew that Mrs. Redfern wasn’t saying this to be cruel. Maybe to scare her, to try to get her to see reason and learn how to bend to societal conventions. It might have even worked, had she been from this time and not already had a history of bad decisions to begin with, and therefore the rather steep learning curve. She sighed, feeling guilty about the woman’s own guilt, and tried to offer her some comfort. “Mrs. Redfern, did my great-aunt happen to tell you why I was sent to live with her?”

“Only that your parents died, God bless their souls,” Mrs. Redfern replied. Her eyes narrowed. “Was there another reason?”

“Let’s just say there’s a reason I know John is a good man, no matter what he does and where he lives,” Rose responded. “Jimmy was the opposite. Sent me to hospital for a few weeks. Police found my great-aunt and sent me to live with her.”

Mrs. Redfern looked horrified. “My dear girl, why didn’t you tell me?” she gasped, a hand going to her mouth. “Had I known, I would have approached you in an entirely different manner!” Rose shrugged.

“Don’t like to think about it,” she said. “Anyway, the whole point of that was to tell you not to worry. I know what bad decisions look like, trust me. You didn’t fail me.”

Before Mrs. Redfern could say anything, a car door slammed outside. They could hear two men, sounding like they were bickering. It took a moment for one of them to knock on the door, and another for that knock to be answered, but soon enough Jack and John both were let in. Jack beamed at her.

“Hey, Rosie Posie!” he greeted, swirling into the room with all the speed of a gale-force wind. He all but ignored Mrs. Redfern, who leaned away from the over-enthusiastic man practically wiggling his arse in her face when he bent to peck Rose on the cheek. “You got everything?”

“Don’t call me that, Jack,” Rose groaned, whacking him hard on the arm. “You know I hate that name! And yes, everythin’ is in that bag,” she added, pointing. Then she looked at John, who was hovering in the doorway awkwardly, and smiled brightly at him. “Hello, John.”

“Hullo,” he replied. His gaze darted to the bag and he raised an eyebrow. “Got enough stuff, then?” he teased.

She looked at him in fake surprise. “What, do you think it’s not enough?” she asked, biting her lip to keep from laughing. His eyes darkened as they fell to her mouth and she saw his hand twitch. Her mind flashed back to their last moments in the TARDIS, when the Doctor had stopped her doing the same thing. She swallowed hard as he looked back into her eyes.

She wasn’t sure how long they just looked at each other before Jack drawled, “You two are as cute as a box of kittens, but we need to get your stuff to the motel, Rose.”

Rose and John both blinked in surprise at his words. The tips of John’s ears turned red and he averted his gaze instantly, striding forward to grab her bag and hurrying out the door before anyone else could comment. Rose sighed and glared at Jack for embarrassing the poor man. Jack just grinned and held his hands up in surrender, following John a touch too quickly to be considered casual. He knew there would be retribution coming and obviously felt it best to get away as quickly as possible. She rolled her eyes at his retreat and stood up to follow. Mrs. Redfern stood as well, grasping her by the elbow - much more gently than the night before - and walking her to the front porch.

“Well,” the woman said uncomfortably. “I suppose this is it. I won’t worry about quite as much about you as I thought I would,” she admitted, glancing at John, who sat in the driver’s seat of the car. Jack leaned against the front passenger side, grinning unabashedly at the scowl the other man sent his way. “Not after seeing how he looks at you. I wish you all the best, Miss Tyler.” With that, she strode back into the house, shutting the front door quietly behind her.

Rose stood on the porch for a moment, a bit wrong-footed by the confession and abrupt goodbye. Shaking her head in consternation, she gave up on ever understanding Joan Redfern and walked over to Jack. She stopped in front of him and stared up into his eyes. For a moment, they looked at each other. Then:

“Shotgun!”

“Shot- damn it!”

Rose slid into the back seat, pouting, and Jack jumped into the front, cackling in triumph. John watched all of this, looking completely bewildered. He looked back at Rose, an eyebrow raised in question, but she only shrugged, a smile pulling at the side of her mouth. She and Jack used to do this every time they were forced to use alternative transport while planetside, and it had somehow evolved into a rather complicated game. Even the Doctor with his vaunted Time Lord brain got confused, usually just rolling his eyes and muttering “humans” or “silly little apes.” There was no use in explaining it to a regular human who wasn’t already in the know. “I lost,” she said simply.

“Obviously,” John replied, still eyeing her and Jack strangely. Then he shrugged, started the car, and pulled out onto the main road. “To the bed and breakfast?”

Jack nodded. “To the bed and breakfast,” he agreed. “And then you should probably go to work. Rose and I need to talk about what we’re going to do for the next few weeks.” He looked back at Rose at these words and she knew he meant more than just talking about where they would stay.

“To the bed and breakfast,” she echoed softly, and set her chin in her hand to watch the surrounding town whiz by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter than I'd like, but yay! They kissed!
> 
> Also, over a hundred kudos and I'm not even halfway through yet! Wow! Thank you so much!!!
> 
> So I'm thinking that the story will end up being 19 chapters. Unless I end up writing an epilogue, which I haven't decided if I will yet. I still have the second half of 18 and the first two-thirds of 19 to write, so I should probably focus on that first. XD
> 
> Hope this lives up to your expectations!
> 
> ~tp


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and John have a bit of a talk.
> 
> Jack and Rose have a bit of a talk.
> 
> (We like to talk around here.)

### 

There was only one place for lodgers in the town, a little bed and breakfast not too far from the school. It doubled as a restaurant, which was where the owners, an older couple, got most of their money from. The rooms on the second floor were little used save for the beginning and end of the finishing school’s terms, when parents would drop off or pick up their daughters for breaks.

John dropped the two of them off by the front door, promising to swing by in the evening and check in on them. Jack watched in amusement as Rose, smiling impishly, stuck her head inside the driver’s side window and planted a kiss right on his open mouth. “Thanks for drivin’ us here, John,” she said, winking as she pulled her head back. John stared at her in absolute shock, the tips of his ears bright red.

He recovered just in time to hear Jack roaring in laughter. Shooting a dirty look at the other man, he reached out and squeezed Rose’s hand gently. “See you later,” he murmured, then cranked the car into gear and drove off, watching her disappear in his rearview mirror.

He got back to the garage in record time. He’d borrowed the car a little too often this past week and a half to feel comfortable keeping it out any longer than needed. Lucky that Robert was willing to loan it out to him, even if he was completely bewildered by the fact that the reason it was needed so much was due to a woman twenty years John’s junior.

Robert was in the office when John walked in. John tossed him the keys, thanking him, and went to go find a pair of overalls so he could get to work. There wasn’t usually a lot of work to do, Calvey Creek being such a small town. The worst problem that’d been brought in had been Mrs. Redfern’s car, with one exception.

Jeremy Baines was a young man just getting into his senior year of high school. As the son of one of the most wealthy citizens of the town, he received a brand new 1954 Chevy Bel Air for making it through to his last year. He wasted no time in showing off to all the 300-odd residents living in Calvey Creek. The very first thing he did was bend the fender when he tried to back out of a particularly tight parking lot. It was mended easily enough, and the boy went a few months without a problem.

Then he got into the racing scene. He brought it to the garage and had it souped up as much as possible before challenging some of the other teenagers around to race down Main. This time, he wasn’t as lucky.

There’d been alcohol involved, John knew that much. Possibly even some drugs, if the rumors were true. Jeremy was on his third race when he lost control and the car went careening into a ditch. It was a miracle that he’d gotten out alive, though incredibly bruised and battered. He’d spent weeks in the hospital in St. Louis with what the doctors had called a traumatic brain injury. He’d only just come home, and there was no way he was going to be driving his car any time soon.

The car itself sustained enough damage that it had been in the shop for nearly a week. Robert had wanted to total the thing right away, but Baines the elder wouldn’t hear of it. He had the money to have it fixed and by God, he was going to get it fixed, even if he had to take it to St. Louis. He even offered an extra $500 on top of what it would end up costing to fix the car. Robert nodded enthusiastically and thus all the mechanics were now directed to work on it whenever possible.

Being the newest member of the team, John was at the bottom of the totem pole. He got the jobs that no one else wanted - hence why he’d been the one to work on Mrs. Redfern’s car, as no one else liked working on it - so he grabbed his tools and slid under the busted up hot rod with a groan to begin working the menial jobs he was forced to do. He could only hope that he’d be given better work once he’d been here for a while. The jobs being as easy as they were, John allowed his mind to wander back to the talk he and Jack had before going to bed.

***

_ “I wasn’t joking earlier, you know,” Jack suddenly said. They’d been sitting at the kitchen table, eating hastily-made sandwiches and chatting amicably. As they’d been talking about previous escapades during their schooling (somehow every one of Jack’s stories ended up with him naked, something that was somehow surprisingly unsurprising), the random change of topic took John by surprise. He looked up and found those bright blue eyes boring into him. Despite their apparent age gap - he was sure he was at least five years older - John suddenly felt much younger. _

_ “About what?” John tried, giving the other man a rather daft-feeling smile. _

_ Jack rolled his eyes. “What are your intentions toward my cousin?” he pressed. “Rosie hasn’t had the best luck with men. I’m just trying to make sure she’ll be okay.” _

_ John frowned at his words. What exactly did he mean by Rose not having the best of luck? She was only twenty. Surely she hadn’t had that much experience. As if he sensed the questions bubbling around, Jack held up a hand. “It’s not my story to tell. Just know that the latest one that I know about never let any other men get close to her, but wouldn’t do anything himself. Something about him not deserving her or some shit.” _

_ John’s mind went back to the Doctor in his dreams. That sounded an awful lot like what was going on with him. “He was an idiot, then,” he said decisively. “I’ve only known Rose a few weeks, but I can tell she makes me better. She’d make anyone better. I’m just lucky she chose me.” He deliberated with himself for a moment, before adding, “And if she’s willing, I’d like to marry her.” _

_ Jack sat back, looking pensive. There was a strange look in his eyes, something like amusement mixed with worry. “A few weeks and you’ve already decided you want to marry her? That’s kind of quick, isn’t it?” _

_ “It’s not like I’m plannin’ on askin’ her tomorrow!” John protested. (He would never admit that he’d actually thought just that for a few crazy minutes before he realized that it might be a hair too quick to pop the question.) “I just knew, as soon as I saw her. It was the same with my first wife. She died in the Christmas Blitz during the war,” he added hastily, seeing Jack’s mouth fall open in shock. At his words, Jack shut his mouth and nodded. He didn’t press, for which John was thankful, though he could have done without the sympathy in his face. _

_ They sat in silence for a moment. John looked around his small flat, avoiding the bright blue of Jack’s gaze as the man thought. When it stretched, John began to worry. Maybe Jack wasn’t all that impressed with him after all? He cleared his throat. “If it’s about the age difference, Rose doesn’t seem to mind,” he said tentatively. Jack laughed loudly, making him jump. _

_ “I’m not worried about that,” he chuckled. “I’ve seen much worse. Honestly, as long as you’re not proposing to her for the next few months, we’re good. Just remember: She’s not cut out for this sort of life.” He waved a hand at the window, indicating the world outside. “Domestics aren’t really her thing. Not living in a house day to day and never doing anything with her life. She runs into danger gladly if it’ll help someone.” His face was very serious, looking much older than the late twenties, early thirties John had pegged him for. His next words were heavy with emotion, as though he were trying to give meaning to something he’d already said once before. “Sometimes the best way to keep someone you love safe is to let them decide what they want to do. If she’s chosen you, don’t fight it. Embrace it. It’s worth the pain, even if they leave you.” _

***

John frowned as he remembered that last bit, absentmindedly tightening a bolt. It was almost as though Jack was trying to send a message to someone and wanted to be completely sure that John remembered his words. But it also seemed that Jack was speaking from personal experience. John had seen that look in his eye, the same one he remembered from his own eyes after the Blitz. He’d loved and lost too. Once again, John wondered just how old Jack really was.

“Hey bean!”

Tim’s voice startled John into banging his head on the undercarriage. A curse fell from his lips and he shimmied out from under the car, a hand to his aching head. He glared up at Tim, but the glare faltered as he saw the teenager was already holding out an ice pack. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” he grumbled, sitting up and accepting the peace offering, placing it gingerly on the already darkening bruise. “And that’s probably the worst greetin’ in the history of greetings.” He shook his head. “Apes.”

“Hey, you’re an ape too,” Tim protested. “Right now, at least.” Before John could ask him just what he meant by that, Tim continued hurriedly. “So I heard Miss Rose got kicked out after all.”

John’s brow lowered. “Where’d you hear that?” he demanded.

“Miss Rose,” Tim shrugged, unperturbed. “Saw her when I was comin’ home from school. She’s real nice.”

“She is nice,” John agreed, giving the teenager a flat, unimpressed look. He wasn’t sure what Tim wanted, but he was about to give the kid the boot and get back to work. This car was going to need a ton of work and every minute counted.

“She’s really a wolf in sheep’s clothing, though,” Tim said suddenly, eyes staring into nothing. John saw the blank look on his face, a worried frown crossing his own. “Threaten her mate and she’ll tear apart the universe to keep him safe. The big, bad wolf won’t just blow their houses down. She’ll atomize them.” He blinked and swayed, and would have fallen had John not shot up and grabbed him just in time.

John waved away Tim’s protests and marched him to the nearest chair, making him sit before fetching a glass of water. He made the kid drink the full glass while he checked his heart rate and blood pressure. Finding nothing out of the ordinary only made him more worried. “What happened?” he demanded, checking for a fever.

Tim batted his hands away. “I’m fine,” he said petulantly. “Just get these weird spells every now and again.” John hmmed skeptically, still studying him. Tim rolled his eyes. “I’ll go lay down if it makes you feel better,” he promised.

“See that you do,” John replied sternly. He watched the teenager walk toward the stairs leading up to the flat above the garage, then went to tell Robert that his son wasn’t going to be working today. He smirked slightly and thought, ‘Doctor’s orders.’

***

Joseph and Mary Brown knew exactly who Rose was when she and Jack walked into the restaurant. Their daughter Emily worked at the finishing school and had told them all about the new English girl who’d tried so hard to make friends with all the staff. She’d felt horrible when she couldn’t accept the friendship - she seemed like such a nice girl. But Mrs. Redfern would have fired her in a heartbeat if she’d gotten ideas “above her station,” and her parents used that extra money to make sure the motel portion of their bed and breakfast stayed nice. Still, if she did extra work for Miss Rose - making her bed, taking extra care of her dresses, making sure she had fresh flowers every day - that was her own business, wasn’t it?

Therefore, when Rose explained their predicament, Mary was more than happy to rent out two rooms for the price of one for a full week. A little kindness went a long way, and Mary was happy to help out the girl who’d wanted to be friends with the hired help.

Rose waved away the offer of Joseph carrying her bag up to her room. “I’ve got Jack for that,” she whispered loudly, pointing at her cousin. Said man rolled his eyes but obediently hoisted the bag up onto his right shoulder. His left was currently occupied by his own bag.

He glanced into the first room that Mary opened up and immediately tossed Rose’s bag onto the small bed. “This one’s yours, Rosie,” he said firmly, a smirk tilting one side of his mouth. Rose looked inside and suppressed a groan when she saw the bright pink and red rose theme. Roses might actually be her least favorite kind of flower, thanks to all the jokes and bad poetry she’d received over the years. Jack’s wasn’t much better - instead of the roses, there were bright blue hydrangeas. They both thanked Mary, who beamed at them before sternly instructing that they were to be down in the restaurant at 6:00 for dinner, no exceptions, then left them to stare at each other.

Rose broke the silence first. “I need to hang up a few of my dresses,” she said, feeling awkward for some reason. Jack nodded silently, tossing his bag into the blue hydrangea room and closing the door. He followed her into her room and sat down on the bed as she opened the bag and rummaged through it, looking for some of her nicer clothes. She would see John more often now that she was living within a block of his workplace, and she wanted to make sure that she always had pretty clothes on hand.

Jack stayed quiet for a few minutes, watching her. When he finally spoke, she nearly squeaked in surprise. “Why did you leave me there?” he asked, voice incredibly even.

Rose flinched. It would have been better if his voice had cracked, if he’d been crying. Instead, his voice was hard, the hurt long since buried in the righteous fury he’d been carting around for nearly a hundred years. She didn’t say anything at first, only brought her arms up into a protective self-embrace.

“Tell me what happened at the Game Station, Rosie,” he demanded, anger beginning to leak into his voice. “How long has it been for you? A year? Two?”

“No!” she cried, aghast. “It was only a few days after we left when those creatures started chasin’ us.” Jack’s eyes narrowed, clearly having doubts about her story. Rose was hurt. “When have I ever lied to you, Jack?” she challenged him.

The man nodded reluctantly. “How did the Doctor survive?” he asked instead. “That Delta wave would’ve killed everything on the Station, and half the earth too. He didn’t have enough time to refine it.”

Rose bit her thumb, thinking about where to start. “Well, if you didn’t know, the Doctor sent me home. Tricked me, more like,” she amended, scowling slightly. “Told me we’d be able to cross our timeline, which we couldn’t, o’ course, and started what he called Emergency Program One. Told me to have a fantastic life and leave the TARDIS on the corner, let Her fade. She took me back to Mum’s flat.” She rolled her eyes. “Like hell I was gonna leave him there. I opened the heart of the TARDIS. Became Bad Wolf and took Her back. Killed all the Daleks and saved the Doctor. Least that’s what he said - I don’t remember it.”

“The heart of the TARDIS?” Jack asked, frowning. “You mean that light Margaret looked into?”

“Yep,” she replied.

“But why don’t you remember?”

She shrugged. “If I did, I’d die. That’s what he said, anyway. A human brain can’t handle seein’ all of time and space like I did. All I remember is light and a strange sort of singin’.” She blushed slightly, but didn’t mention the kiss. The Doctor wouldn’t like that spread about, she knew, even if it  _ was _ Jack. Actually, probably  _ especially _ because it was Jack. “He took the Vortex out of me-” she blushed harder and ignored Jack’s raised eyebrow “- and put it back into the TARDIS. Nearly died doin’ it, too. He went a bit wonky and crashed the TARDIS at Mum’s flat. Went into what he called a healin’ coma and stayed that way for a day or so. But some Sycorax tried to invade the earth almost as soon as we got there. I tried to make them go away, but we ended up havin’ to wake the Doctor up so he could take care of it. He’d only just gotten back to normal when those aliens turned up.”

Jack whistled. “Sycorax, huh? Those are some seriously bad news aliens right there.” He frowned. “But wait, what do you mean you became Bad Wolf? I remember those words. Still see them from time to time, actually.” His hand went to his pocket and he pulled out a piece of paper. “They were on this letter I got telling me where you were, actually.”

Rose took the paper in one shaking hand and looked at it. Sure enough, the words “Bad Wolf” were scrawled across the back of the letter. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Remember, I heard about this from the Doctor,” she prefaced. “I don’t remember much of it. The words ‘Bad Wolf’ were sort of my… callin’ card, I guess you could say. They were messages to let me know that we were on the right track, even though we didn’t know that they were messages in the first place.” She shook her head. “Time travel can be so confusin’. Anyway, when I looked into the heart, I wasn’t Rose Tyler any more than the TARDIS stayed the TARDIS. We kind of merged, and became Bad Wolf.”

She looked at Jack, and horror began to grow in her mind. If Bad Wolf could end the entire Dalek empire with a wave of Her hand, what else could She do? “Jack,” she said, voice trembling. “What do you remember about comin’ back to life? On the Game Station?”

He frowned at her question, but answered. “Just a strange sort of burning,” he replied, head tilted to one side as he thought. “I want to say that there was some sort of light, but I don’t remember much about it. I could just be thinking I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Funny, though,” he added thoughtfully. “I wouldn’t have thought it’d be golden light. White, yeah, but not gold. Rose!” He lunged for Rose, whose legs had given out at his words. He picked her up and sat her next to him on the bed, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “What’s wrong?” he asked urgently.

“I bring life,” she whispered, and her eyes flared gold. Jack’s own eyes widened as he saw the glow. She turned to face him. “I did this to you,” she said tearfully. “I brought you back to life. You were my best friend and you were dead and I had the power to change it, so I brought you back to life.”

Comprehension dawned. “But you didn’t know how to use the power, so you used too much and it became permanent,” he continued. A humorless smile crossed his lips as he added, “Well, kind of permanent. I can still die. I just sort of… come back.”

Rose burst into tears. Intentional or not, it was her fault that Jack’s life had become so messed up. She would feel guilty about this for the rest of her life. She couldn’t even be there for him throughout his life, as she would die long before he ever would, if he even could die permanently.

“Hey now, Rosie, don’t cry,” Jack said, wiping her tears away. “Sure, I was angry about it for a few decades, but there’s so much out there to see, and now I can.” He held her for a few more minutes, then leaned away slightly and gave her a suggestive look. “But now, Rose Tyler, I saw that blush when you talked about the Doctor taking the Vortex out of you. What exactly did he do, and how can I get in on it?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> D'aww, John, you're so cute! And slightly stalkerish, but who's counting? XD
> 
> Also, "hey bean" is totally legit as a greeting in the 1950s. Stupid sounding, but true.
> 
> Review and kudos are always appreciated!
> 
> ~tp


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack reflects.
> 
> Alsø wik, Jack rues his terrible word choices.
> 
> Alsø alsø wik, Tim starts to figure some things out.

### 

Jack closed the door quietly behind him, careful not to disturb Rose, who was sleeping. With as much stress as she’d been under the past few months, he was surprised she hadn’t passed out earlier. They’d talked for a long time, mostly him telling her about his adventures since they’d last seen each other. The sun was low in the sky by the time he noticed that her breathing had become even and deep, so he got her settled before leaving her to her rest. She would be annoyed when she woke up, both at the fact that he let her fall asleep before he was finished and that he’d changed her into her pajamas. He would be in for a slap when he saw her again.

Deciding not to worry about her reaction, he went down the stairs, waving at Mary Brown as he left the small bed and breakfast. He resettled his coat on his shoulders, pulling the collar up to shield his neck from the wind. It wasn’t quite cold yet, but there was a chill in the air that told him winter wasn’t far away. It would have been nicer to stay in his room, but he needed space away from as many people as he could get.

From his short observation of the town the night before, he knew there was a small park close by. It being about time for supper for families and cool outside to boot, he knew there would be very few people there. The walk only took a few minutes, enough to help him begin to unravel the knot of emotion that still sat in his stomach after Rose’s story.

Rose’s story. He sighed, sitting on a bench, and let his face fall into his hands.

They hadn’t left him on purpose, or at least Rose hadn’t. From what he could understand, she was unconscious when the TARDIS dematerialized. She’d asked after him. She was worried about him. Still worrying about him, and feeling terribly guilty now that she knew what she’d done to him.

He wouldn’t - couldn’t - blame her for her actions as Bad Wolf. If she really had seen all of time and space like the Doctor said, there was a reason this happened to him. He couldn’t imagine what would be so important that he would need to be permanently alive, but then again, he was only a Time Agent. Ex-Time Agent, even. There was some comfort in the fact the universe needed him, he supposed, but the fact that Rose wanted him alive again simply because he was one of her best friends warmed a place inside him that had been cold for far too long.

But the Doctor… Jack would bet everything he had that the Time Lord knew he was alive. He’d heard the words, after all - “I bring life.” (He would also bet everything he had that those were the exact words. That glow in Rose’s eyes when she said that was far too similar to the light from the heart of the TARDIS to be a coincidence.) And who else on that station would Rose have brought back to life other than him? Okay, he amended, who would she have resurrected first? Rose Tyler was many things, but she was compassionate above all. The Doctor must have stopped her from doing it to anyone else.

Which was good, because Jack wouldn’t wish this on his worst enemy. He hadn’t lied to Rose about his feelings, but he hadn’t told her everything either. Yes, there were amazing things to see, even if he was stuck on Earth in its really, really Dark Ages (as far as he was concerned, anyway; his proclivities weren’t exactly welcome at the moment). He saw the beauty of Earth everywhere he traveled. There weren’t many places that hadn’t felt the imprint of his boot.

But there was a reason for that. He was constantly moving from place to place, terrified that someone somewhere would capture him and turn him into nothing more than a science experiment, something to be vivisected and killed only to do it again and again and again. A man that could never die would be the ultimate secret weapon, sent on suicide mission after suicide mission. He’d fought in both World Wars, but by some stroke of luck managed to never get injured severely enough to die. Now he bummed around the United States, knowing that in the next few years the hippie scene would begin. No one would notice him then, he hoped, and he could stop being quite so vigilant.

He wanted to stop being planet-bound and skip around time and space like he used to. Not when he was an agent, but when he was on the TARDIS. Helping people and going to beautiful places with his two best friends. Well, one of his best friends. As childish as the question felt, was the Doctor still his friend? Because it felt an awful lot like the man had run away, as he was wont to do whenever it came time to clean up a mess. And he, Jack, was part of a mess. The Time Lord probably told Rose that he was rebuilding the earth just so Rose would think that he was dead and therefore wouldn’t ask to go back for him. But he’d leave those thoughts for later when the Doctor was the Doctor again.

Poor Rose, he thought, running a hand over his face. This whole situation was terrible for her. She’d loved the Doctor for a long time, and Jack knew for a fact that it had started at “I’m so glad I met you” for the Doctor (thanks to the hypervodka that had enough of a kick to ride roughshod over even the Doctor’s superior physiology). He’d weaseled out from Rose just what the Doctor had done to remove the Vortex from her head and agreed with her: the Time Lord had most definitely not intended for her to remember the kiss. Their relationship was on shaky ground before the events on the Game Station, and that kiss destabilized it even more. And now she had to deal with a human Doctor stripped of his guilt complex and drama queen streak (she would die and he’d be left alone and even more hurt - something that Jack understood better now, but still thought he was an idiot for thinking that way). It was simple: the Doctor loved Rose Tyler. So too did John Smith. Now Rose was stuck in the middle. Talk about a rock and a hard place.

Jack rubbed his forehead and sighed. After working for the Time Agency for who knows how long (time got a bit relative after bouncing back and forth between the 51st century and wherever he was assigned at the time), he’d learned to feel when something important was going to happen. Nothing on the scale of the Doctor, of course; he was only human, after all. He’d honed the skill in the years since he’d been trapped, and it had saved his life more than once. Right now, there was a heavy feeling in the air, one he had learned to associate with big events.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Speak of the devil.

John sat down beside him, clad in that leather jacket that just looked wrong on him. He’d obviously just gotten off work, seeing as how his hands and face were dirty with grease and oil and he still wore coveralls. He gave Jack a concerned look. “You all right? You’re lookin’ a bit grim there.”

Jack glanced sideways at him. “You ever get that feeling that something bad is about to happen?” he asked. He didn’t give the other man a chance to answer, standing up and looking at the sky. “Because something bad is going to happen, I’m almost sure of it.” A light streaked across the sky at his words and he groaned. “One of these days I’ll learn to keep my mouth shut,” he groused, falling dramatically back onto the bench.

“It’s just a meteorite,” John said after a moment, staring at him with one eyebrow raised. “Rocks fallin’ from space, burnin’ up in the atmosphere. Won’t even make it more than 35 miles above us before it’ll be gone.”

Jack traced the path of the meteor, eyes narrowing as the streak lasted far longer than it should have. Then he shrugged and pulled out his best grin to cover his worry. “Eh, you’re probably right. I’ve just got an overactive imagination.” He got up again, shoving his hands into his pockets to hide the way his hands had fisted. “Well, I’m gonna go wake up Rose and see what Mary’s cooking for dinner.”

“Rose is asleep at this time of day?” John asked, sounding worried. He stood up as well and followed Jack as he began the short trek back to the bed and breakfast. “Is she all right?”

“I think it was just an emotional day and she tired herself out,” Jack replied, shrugging unconcernedly. “It finally hit her that she was kicked out of that school. She’ll be fine.” In a few weeks when all this was over with, he didn’t add.

John nodded, but still looked concerned. “If you say so,” he said reluctantly. They reached the street that John’s apartment building was on. The man stopped and held out a hand. Jack shook it.

“You want to join us for dinner?”

“Nah, it’ll take me too long to get cleaned up,” John replied. “But tell Rose I’ll see her tomorrow?” His voice was hopeful. Jack was hard-pressed not to make things tougher on him, but he somehow managed to squelch the urge. He nodded instead and smothered a smile when the other man looked relieved. “See you tomorrow then, mate.” Jack watched him walk off and step into his apartment building before he turned and went back to the bed and breakfast.

Rose was waiting for him at a table, looking none too happy with him. The put-out expression on her face disappeared when she saw his face. “What’s wrong?” she asked, standing up and making her way swiftly around the table.

He looked around. The restaurant was cozy and small, with patrons nearly rubbing elbows as they sat at a table. Not wanting anyone to overhear him, he grasped her gently by the arm and took her up the stairs to his room. “I think the Family’s here,” he said bluntly.

“What?!” Rose yelped.

“I saw a trail of what I’m pretty sure was a spaceship go through the sky when I was at the park,” he affirmed. “I don’t think it landed too far from here, maybe five miles. I want to go check it out.” He saw the instant denial in her face and added, “Just to look is all. I could be wrong.”

“No, Jack,” Rose said firmly, shaking her head. Her eyes flashed gold when Jack made to argue and she held up her hand. He shut up. “Hear me out. We don’t know how many of those things there are. I know there’s at least two, but that’s all. And you’re good, Jack, but what if there’s more than that? You get jumped and they possess you or whatever. Just because they don’t know you’re immortal now doesn’t mean anythin’; they’d find out instantly, right?”

Jack nodded reluctantly.

“And then who’d help me protect John? I can’t stay with him, no matter how much I want to. We don’t need to draw any more attention to ourselves than we have to. I’ve already mucked it up as it is, gettin’ kicked out of that school.” Her brow furrowed in thought. “You could stay with him, though. You can persuade anyone about anythin’ - you could convince John to let you stay the night or somethin’.”

“Fine,” he acquiesced grumpily. He knew she was right. But he was itching for some action. This whole hurry up and wait business was terrible on his nerves. He’d had enough of that during the war - both of them. “He’ll be fine tonight though. It’ll take time for them to get here. I’ll see if I can lend a hand at the shop tomorrow. They’ve got that hot rodder that’s still in pretty bad shape. They could use the extra help, I bet.” He remembered John’s request. “And John said he’d see you tomorrow, by the way. Taking you out on another date?” he teased.

Rose blushed and whacked him hard on the arm, but she looked pleased anyway. Then a guilty look crossed her face. Her hand slipped into the pocket of her dress and pulled out the fob watch. She traced the whirls and eddies of the Doctor’s language with her thumb for a moment, then placed it back in her pocket.

“You could leave him human.” Jack’s voice was soft. “You could have an amazing life together here. It wouldn’t be the same as being in the TARDIS, but you’d have him.”

She was shaking her head before he finished. “I can’t do that to him,” she replied just as softly. “It’s not my decision. It’ll be John’s.” She patted her pocket and moved toward the door.

“But can you go back to how you were?” Jack pressed. She stopped at the door, back ramrod straight. He continued. “Can you go back to what you had before and not break?” She looked back at him, her eyes calm.

“I’ll have to,” she said evenly. She opened the door and gestured. “Let’s go eat.”

Jack raked a hand through his hair in annoyance at her avoidance and followed her.

***

Tim watched Miss Rose and her cousin eating dinner from the corner of his eye. Their movements were stiff and the conversation (what he could hear of it, anyway) was stilted and almost formal. This surprised him since Miss Rose was one of the kindest people he’d met and Buck Rogers there was definitely a people person. He didn’t need his mojo to tell him that - he could tell from the glances and flirty looks he sent around the room despite whatever was going on between him and Miss Rose. Glancing at his dad, who was busy with some papers from the shop, Tim decided to go over and talk to them.

He plopped into a chair close to their table, surprising both of them. “Hullo, Tim,” Miss Rose said, smiling at him and relaxing. “How’s school been goin’?”

Tim waved a hand lazily. “I show up,” he replied. Miss Rose graced him with a raised eyebrow and he blushed, though if anyone pointed it out he’d deny it. “Most of the time,” he amended.

“You sound like me when I was in school,” she laughed.

“Until you dropped out, anyway,” he pointed out unthinkingly.

The amusement drained from Miss Rose’s face as she stared at him. Buck Rogers smirked at him, clearly interested in how he would extricate himself from this little misstep. “How’d you know I dropped out?” Miss Rose asked suspiciously, not-quite-glaring at him.

Tim shrugged. “I just know things,” he replied easily. He smirked back at Buck Rogers, who was clearly disappointed that there weren’t more fireworks. “I call it my mojo. He’d probably call it psychic,” he added, jerking a thumb at the man.

“Hmm,” Miss Rose said, sounding skeptical. Then she grinned. “Where’s your turban? You should set up shop and tell people’s futures.”

He grimaced at the thought. “No thanks, Miss Rose. I’m happy being my low-achieving self. Who’s this guy?”

“Oh!” Miss Rose gasped, looking embarrassed. “This is Jack, my cousin. He stopped in town to say hello. Just his luck he got saddled with me.” Jack rolled his eyes and saluted her with his glass before turning to study Tim with his bright blue eyes.

“You were right,” he said abruptly. “She didn’t know.” He stood up and tugged Rose’s arm until she stood as well. A dull  _ thunk _ came from the floor and she winced. Must’ve hit her foot on the table, Tim decided. “It’s time for all little girls to be in bed,” the man teased. “And all little boys, for that matter.” The teasing abruptly disappeared, and Tim found himself on the receiving end of a very stern look. “Stay low,” he ordered. “You’ll know when it’s safe.” And he led Rose away, the two of them bickering more like siblings than cousins who barely knew each other.

Tim watched them go with amusement, knowing very well that they weren’t related to each other by blood in the least. He stood up and made to push his chair in, but kicked something that clattered and rattled, kind of like a chain. Ducking down, he saw an old fob watch. He grasped it and was very nearly knocked over by the barrage of images that appeared in his mind’s eye. The most prominent one was Miss Rose, and a voice that sounded very much like Mr. Smith whispered her name.

He stared at the watch, things beginning to click together. He knew that something was going on with Mr. Smith. There was something missing. It seemed that whatever was missing was inside this watch. He opened it.

_ “We aren’t alone,” _ the watch whispered.  _ “Keep me secret. Keep me safe. Keep the watch closed.” _

Tim snapped it shut quickly and tucked it into his pocket. This watch was important, he knew, and to say that Miss Rose would be upset that she’d lost it would be an understatement. He would do as the person in the watch said and give it to her when he saw her next.

***

“We have traced the Time Lord’s ship here, Father of Mine,” Mother of Mine said. She smoothed out the dress of the woman she’d possessed, admiring the pattern of the material.

“I know this, Mother of Mine,” Father of Mine replied. The ring on his left hand matched the one on the woman’s own.

“Then let us find the Time Lord.” Son of Mine urged. He disliked this small body that he had been forced to possess, but Father of Mine had been firm in making sure their disguise as normal humans stayed intact.

“And the woman,” added Daughter of Mine, tossing her long, blonde hair. “Her life force smells just as good. Perhaps better.”

“You are right, Daughter of Mine,” Mother of Mine said, giving her a proud look. “It was hard to distinguish, muddied as it was by the stench of human, but it was there.”

“Then let us go,” Son of Mine whined. The sooner he could occupy a bigger body than a small child, the better.

“No, Son of Mine,” Father of Mine denied firmly. “If we wish to blend in with the humans, we must wait. According to this body’s memories, there is an event going on in two days. We will lay low until that day, then begin our search. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” said Mother of Mine.

“Agreed,” said Daughter of Mine.

They looked at Son of Mine, who pouted like the age his body was. “Agreed.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun! The Family of Blood has arrived! I tell you what, their speech patterns gave me conniptions trying to replicate them. It's like Spock meets... I don't know, something really violent. Maybe his brother.
> 
> (I type this as I listen to my husband trying to teach my six-year-old daughter how to throw a punch. Le sigh.)
> 
> Hope you like it!
> 
> (Alsø alsø alsø wik, I will reply to comments later today. But DSW is having a shoe sale and I am, in fact, the stereotypical woman when it comes to shoes.)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose is bored.
> 
> Rose and Tim have lunch.
> 
> Father of Mine does a bit of investigating.

### 

It was a restless day for Rose. Jack had made good on his promise to see if he could help with that hot rodder in the garage. Robert was thrilled to hear of another man with mechanical experience and put him to work right away. Rose, who had gone with him, left him chatting with the other mechanics. All the mechanics save John, anyway, who rolled his eyes and wedged himself under the car to continue his work, sparing a smile for Rose when he saw her. She smiled back at him with that tongue-touched grin she knew he loved and smothered a laugh when she saw the tips of his ears light up.

That was at nine in the morning. She wandered the streets of the small town, talking to those people she knew and waving or nodding at those she didn’t. She helped Mr. Clark pick up what trash there was in the park (not much, as the people here were conscientious to the extreme about the appearance of their town). She gave Mr. Cartwright a handkerchief when he sniffed loudly as he passed her on his way to work at the soda shop and expressed her concern that he should maybe go home and nip that cold in the bud. She leaned on a fence and watched the boys in P.E. at the local high school run faster than they ever had simply because she was there. (She was amused to note at how their showing off to her only got them a scolding from Mr. Rocastle, the principal of the school. She was less amused to note the scowl he gave her and remembered that he was one of Mrs. Redfern’s chief confidants since they were both in the position of managing a school. He’d probably heard a lot of not good things about her.) 

Those activities got her all the way to noon. Sighing, she headed back to see what she could scrounge up to eat, only to get waylaid by Jack and John, who excitedly dragged her back to the garage to show her how much progress they’d made on the car since that morning. It turned out that no matter if he was the Doctor or John Smith, the Time Lord-turned-human and Jack made a great team. They enhanced each other’s abilities and whatever weakness lay in one was a strength in the other. She was more of a gearhead than the average girl after a lifetime with Mickey as her best friend and boyfriend and appreciated how far their efforts had gotten them. She hung out with them for a bit, but a quiet word from Robert had her waving and heading back to the bed and breakfast. Apparently, she was distracting John from his work. She didn’t see how his work had suffered any and assumed that Robert didn’t want her around the presence of all the foul mouths he had working in his garage. She snorted at the thought - she probably had a fouler mouth than all of them put together save Jack. (The Doctor swore only in his musical language and she couldn’t ever tell if the words were different or not.)

Tim appeared out of nowhere and escorted her back to the bed and breakfast. She tried to lecture him about skipping school, but couldn’t keep a straight face and gave it up. Who was she to talk? Instead, she just shook her head and said teasingly, “What am I going to do with you, Tim?”

She expected the teenager to laugh with her and have some smart-ass remark, but his eyes suddenly grew distant and he stopped dead. The couple walking behind them nearly hit them. The woman sneered at them as they went around, but Rose didn’t notice it, too worried about Tim to be bothered. She patted his cheek gently, then shook his shoulder when that didn’t jar him from his trance. He didn’t stir, but before she could try anything else too drastic, he blinked. His gaze returning to the here and now, he looked over at her and smiled, though his eyes were troubled. “I’m going with you to go eat, Rose,” he said.

He leaned on her heavily as they finished their trek to the restaurant and took a seat. Rose, eyeing Tim’s pale complexion, ordered a large meal for him and a smaller one for herself. It wasn’t busy - the lunch hour had been over for well over thirty minutes - so their food was placed in front of them quickly. Rose didn’t even try to be subtle in her mothering and watched to make sure he ate every bite of his food. He rolled his eyes at her but didn’t protest, probably knowing that anything he said wouldn’t make a dent.

“You’re just like Mr. Smith, you know,” he grumbled in between bites. “He did this too.”

“You spaced out like this in front of him?” she asked, intrigued. “What did you see?”

Tim shrugged. “Can’t remember. Usually don’t.” That troubled look hadn’t left his eyes yet. Rose dearly wanted to know what it was that he saw this time; it was clear that he remembered this one. But she could tell that he didn’t want to talk about it, so she didn’t press.

Instead, she nudged his foot. “Do you still have it?” she asked softly.

Tim looked confused for a moment before he realized what she was talking about. His hand went to the pocket of his jacket. “Right here,” he confirmed, moving to pull it out.

“Keep it,” she ordered. “I’ve got a feelin’ that you’re the one who needs to hold onto it right now.” Despite her words, her hand twitched toward the watch before she could stop it. She missed its comforting weight in her pocket and the whispers that would lull her to sleep.

Her companion smirked and took the watch out of his pocket, sliding it over to her. “I’ll take it with me when I leave,” he assured her.

She gave him a wide smile and picked it up reverently. She heard the Doctor’s voice saying her name and relaxed completely, just for a moment, even with the whisper of “we’re not alone” that followed her name. “Hello, Doctor,” she whispered back.

“So that’s his name, then?” Tim asked in interest. “The things I saw couldn’t be done by a John Smith. That name’s way too normal.”

Rose snorted. “Yep. He’d be horrified by how he’s livin’ right now if he knew. I can’t wait to see his reaction to all the domestics.” She could wait, however, to see his reaction to the revelation that his human self was in the process of courting her, and according to Jack, would marry her right this second if it were even halfway proper.

“It’ll all turn out fine, Miss Rose,” Tim said, voice kind. She looked up at him. The look on his face was one she’d never have expected to see on a young teenager, something soft and warm and distinctly old. But then, she supposed, Tim was no ordinary teenager.

“Your mojo tell you that?” she asked, trying to joke. It felt as flat as her voice.

He shook his head. “Naw,” he replied. “He just loves you so much it’s spilling out of the watch. Could feel it the second I touched it. My mom always said love finds a way.” He blushed at his words and stood up, clearing his throat roughly. He held his hand out for the watch and she placed it in his palm, feeling amused at his typical male reaction to anything related to feelings. He pocketed it again. “Anyway, I gotta go before my old man finds out I skipped school again. Have fun on your date!” He winked at her and left.

“Did I hear the word ‘date,’ young lady?” Rose jumped and looked behind her. Mary Brown stood there, hands on hips, one eyebrow raised. “And you don’t have anything that’s not wrinkled after having it all packed in your bag, I suspect.”

Rose blushed.

Mary nodded in that knowing way all mothers have. “I thought so. Well, you lay out whatever dress you’d like to wear and while you’re getting ready I’ll get it all pressed and starched for you. No arguments, dear!” Rose, who had opened her mouth to tell her that no, all this fuss really wasn’t necessary, shut her mouth and nodded meekly. She went up the stairs to do as she was told, musing about how it didn’t matter what time period you were in, or where you were in the universe - good mothers were all the same.

***

Tim hunched his shoulders as he walked back to the garage. He’d dropped the word “date” on purpose, as he knew Mrs. Brown would descend on Miss Rose and help her get ready. He felt the need to escape after that strange vision he’d had out on the sidewalk. He hadn’t lied to Miss Rose - he didn’t usually remember his visions. So why did he remember this one? And why was it a vision of him living on the Doctor’s ship?

***

Father of Mine was walking to work when he found it. He’d passed by a woman who might have been the one traveling with the Time Lord, but before as he took a deep breath, he caught the scent of something far more delicious. A person had arrived in Calvey Creek who was immortal. It started at the bus stop, where they must have arrived by bus. It wandered around for a bit before it disappeared by the street at the mechanic’s shop. Father of Mine presumed the person had taken a car to somewhere. The only place in town that really required mechanical transportation to get to was the finishing school, so he walked the five miles or so to the school, and picked up another scent, that of the woman traveling with the Time Lord. He picked up the other’s scent again and followed it out into the woods, where it merged with the woman’s scent before disappearing for good. Too many ordinary humans had been around this area to discover if they had done something to themselves to mask their scents somehow. Father of Mine set his jaw.

He would find them and then he would bleed their life force out of them so he and his family could live forever.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one, and mostly filler, I know. But it helps move the plot along, so... XD Hope it at least meets your expectations a little bit!
> 
> ~tp


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Rose go on a date.
> 
> We learn a bit about Rose's past.
> 
> John is a hero and gets the gumption to ask Rose a question.

### 

John fidgeted in the new blue oxford Jack had practically forced him to buy. He felt ridiculous in it - it was too bright for his tastes, and anyway, he hated button-up shirts. But Jack had insisted and for some reason he’d given in. Probably because the man used sneaky, underhanded tactics like “Rose would like it” and “you want to look nice for Rose, don’t you?” He glared at Jack when he caught the man checking out his arse, but Jack merely flashed him an unrepentant grin. “Sorry John, I just can’t help it,” he teased. John glared harder (seriously, he was taking out Jack’s favorite cousin and yet the man was  _ still _ flirting with him), but before he could retort, he caught sight of Rose entering the dining room and forgot what he was going to say entirely.

He’d never seen her dressed up so nicely before, even on their earlier dates. It was off the shoulder and lacy, completely black save for a blue ribbon tied around her waist. A necklace of pearls was strung across her neck, which was exposed by her hair being pulled up into some kind of complicated knot. She wore heeled shoes that made her hips sway enticingly as she walked toward them.

“Pick your jaw up, John,” Jack muttered in amusement. He gave a wolf-whistle that garnered a blush and an eye roll from Rose.

Realizing that he had in fact been gaping at Rose, he pulled himself together and went to meet her. She gave him that tongue-in-teeth grin that drove him crazy and he only barely kept from kissing her, though her eyes sparkled up at him as though she knew what he was thinking. Who knew, maybe she did? “You changed your jumper!” she said in surprise, whiskey-colored eyes roaming over his form. Her eyes danced with some inside joke and she raised an eyebrow. “Jack?”

“Jack,” he confirmed, rolling his eyes. He took her hand and linked their fingers. “You look beautiful.”

She beamed at him. “Thank you,” she said, squeezing his hand. “You don’t look so bad yourself, you know.”

“All right, all right,” Jack suddenly butted in. He shook his finger at the two of them, and his devious smile made John suddenly very glad that there weren’t any patrons in the restaurant just yet. “I want you home by 10, Rosie. No hanky-panky! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

John could feel his ears burning. Beside him, Rose practically radiated in indignation. “Jack!” she shrieked. “A, I’ll get back when I get back, and B, if I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t do, hanky-panky would very much be on the menu!” Her mouth snapped shut as the realization of what she’d said spread across her face and she blushed crimson in mortification. Jack gaped at her in shock, and John…

John laughed. Hard. Her embarrassment served to put him at ease, and he placed a hand at the small of her back to guide her out. “We’ll be back,” he said to Jack. The other man gave him a lazy salute and went into the dining room, no doubt to stake out the perfect place to flirt with anybody who walked in.

Rose’s cheeks slowly lost their flush during the walk, but her gaze stayed firmly on the ground, avoiding his own. “Are you all right?” John asked, suppressing the urge to laugh again. No need to embarrass her even further.

Her eyes flickered up to meet his briefly. “Yeah. Just kind of want to sink into a hole right about now,” she admitted, tucking an escaped lock of hair behind her ear. She looked up at him again. “You know I didn’t mean…” She trailed off, cheeks reddening again.

“I know what you meant,” he assured her. He was curious about something though, after spending all afternoon with the man. “Does Jack flirt with everybody he meets?”

“Pretty much,” she agreed. “He’d flirt with a lamppost if he thought it’d flirt back, I think.” John laughed. He could certainly see that happening and said so. This led to him telling her about Jack’s day at the garage, how he’d antagonized the other mechanics to the point where no one but John would work with him, and how Jack had flirted with him the entire time they’d spent picking out a shirt. 

They reached his flat in no time. “This probably isn’t the best timin’ for this now after… earlier,” he said, “but I thought we could have dinner here. Not the best cook, me, but I can manage some pasta if you’d like. Jack gave his permission for you to come up to my flat with me. Not that you need it, o’ course,” he added hurriedly, seeing the thunderclouds begin to form on her face. She relaxed and smiled shyly at him.

“Lead the way,” she invited. He gave her a rather daft-feeling grin and did just that, guiding her up the stairs and into his small living space.

Between the two of them, they managed to scrounge up a decent meal. Watching Rose attempt to work the stove, he stifled a laugh and set her to tossing a salad instead once it was time to do so. “You’d think I’d know how to work a burner,” she acknowledged, laughing, “but I’m not a good cook. I burn water if it’s not in a kettle. I do make a mean cuppa though. Even Jack thinks so, and he  _ hates _ tea.”

“I knew there was somethin’ wrong with him,” John said musingly.

“Hush, you,” she mock-scolded, swatting him playfully with a dish towel. (He didn’t know he even  _ had _ a dish towel and wondered where she’d gotten it from.) Then she sighed. “That’s somethin’ I miss, being here. A good cuppa would do wonders, but all they’ve got around here is iced tea.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste. John couldn’t help but place a kiss on it, making the wrinkles smooth out in surprise. He pulled out a tin and presented it to her with a flourish.

She squealed when she read the label and flung her arms around him happily. Bags of Twinings’ Earl Grey went flying in her glee. He laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist in return, giving her a quick squeeze before disentangling himself and bending over to begin picking the bags up. He certainly did not have to swallow, suddenly dry-mouthed as she bent over as well and gave him a fantastic view of her arse. He pulled his eyes away with some difficulty and dumped the bags he held in his hand into the tin. Seeing her innocent grin, he had the feeling she knew what had just happened (probably did it on purpose, the minx) and turned quickly to the stove, ears turning red as he checked on the spaghetti in the pot.

Finding it done, he directed her to start putting together a salad with the measly amount of greens he had left in his refrigerator. While she did that, he poured out the water and put in some homemade meat sauce. A woman in town had given it to him after he’d helped her get her groceries into her car one day and he’d always planned on using it and just never got around to it. Hopefully, it would taste good.

It wasn’t long after that that they were sitting at his small dining table, legs tangled together as they ate their spaghetti (Rose had somehow managed to completely destroy the salad in the time it took to set plates out) and drank their tea. They laughed at her culinary disaster and she told stories of other masterpieces of destruction she’d made. He explained how he’d learned how to make authentic Italian pasta from a real Italian chef during the war. She informed him that the best tea she’d ever had was made by her mother, but the worst pasta she’d ever eaten was made by the same.

The conversation soon turned toward other artistic pursuits. When he found out that her favorite author was Charles Dickens and her favorite book was  The Christmas Carol , his eyes lit up with a chance to impress her. He hurried over to his desk and grabbed his journal, looking for the correct page as he walked back to the table. He gave a triumphant “ah-ha” when he found it, then slid it over to her.

“I had a dream that I met Charles Dickens once,” he enthused. He missed the alarmed flicker in her eyes as he spoke. “Well, it wasn’t me, really. I dream that I’m an alien called the Doctor, and I fly around in time and space.” He suddenly realized that that fact might not be the one to bandy about and flushed.

Rose didn’t say anything, though she quirked an eyebrow in question when she went to turn the page. He nodded and she flicked through the pages. Her eyes got wider and wider as she made her way through the (by now) quite thick book. She lingered on a picture of the baby-faced Slitheen. “This is fascinating, John,” she said warmly. “All of this has been in your dreams?”

It was his turn to blush bright red as she turned another page to find a drawing of her own face on the page. He nodded, clearing his throat and willing his flush away. He had the feeling that he should be able to do that for some reason, but of course that was impossible. “Sometimes you show up as my, er, companion. We’ve been to the end of the earth, and to 1869 Cardiff of all places, and a satellite big enough to hold thousands of people. Jack is there too, sometimes.” He frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to him. “He was in there before I met him, even. That’s strange.”

“He’d be absolutely thrilled,” Rose teased. She reached across to grab his hand. “May I borrow this? Jack would love to see it if it’s all right with you. He’ll consider it proof that he’s the man of your dreams.”

He rolled his eyes but grinned all the same. “Course you can,” he agreed instantly.

Finished with their plates, John picked them up and put them in the sink, waving Rose off when she wanted to wash them. It was getting late, and he wanted to walk around town with her before she needed to get back to the bed and breakfast. He knew Jack was joking around with Rose about the ten o’clock curfew, but that was quite late enough to be out with one’s significant other. The dinner at his flat was pushing it anyway, and he didn’t want to test his resolve if Rose Tyler stayed there till who knew how late. Instead, he shucked on his coat and helped her into hers, giving her the time to place the journal in her handbag before taking her hand and leading her back out into the street.

They meandered along the road for some time, just talking. They passed an advertisement for the sock hop tomorrow, but he barely glanced at it. It was one thing taking her out and walking around town and eating dinner at his place, but it was something else entirely taking her out dancing.

There were some kids out dragging Main, and out in the distance he could hear the rev of some hot rodders. Soon they would be racing down the street, though they weren’t supposed to. The coppers here usually turned a blind eye to them as long as they didn’t go too fast.

Mrs. Baines strolled along the other side of the street, her four-year-old daughter Deborah happily skipping alongside her. The red ball in her hands told him that they’d just returned from a playdate, probably with her best friend Susan (and why did a wave of melancholy sweep over him when he thought that name?). They stopped as Mr. Rocastle waylaid them, probably wanting to talk about Jeremy and his success (or lack thereof, if the rumors were true) in integrating back into school after his accident. By the politely bored look on her face, Mrs. Banes had already had this discussion several times, probably in great depth.

Rose followed his gaze and frowned. “I’ve heard that Jeremy isn’t doing too well,” she said sadly.

“Heard that too,” John agreed. “Wonder why that is?”

“Traumatic brain injuries can affect a person’s personality,” she replied. Her voice was solemn and far away, as in remembrance. “Injury to the frontal lobe can completely change who they are.”

He glanced at her in interest and concern. Interest in that he hadn’t heard all of that put together into one sentence by someone who wasn’t a doctor, concern because she looked upset. “You have experience with this sort of thing?” he asked. She nodded once, sharply, as though the memory pained her.

“A boy I knew in school. I remembered him being the sweetest guy. Really quiet. He cried once when he saw a squirrel get run over.” She laughed, a sort of bitter chuckle that made him draw her up against his side. She laid her head on his shoulder and took a deep, shuddering breath. “Met him again when I went to a club after my parents died. He was completely different. Lead singer of a band, loud, arrogant, fit.” She smirked wryly. “Right up my alley when I was sixteen. Didn’t realize just how much he’d changed until I woke up in a hospital bed a few months after I moved in with him. Found out later that he’d gotten into a car accident and just barely survived. His personality’d done a complete 180. He was in jail last I’d heard of him.”

John’s eyes were wide and his hands were shaking. It was a good thing this man was in jail or else John would have been after him in a heartbeat. Injury to his brain or not, it didn’t excuse the fact that he’d beat a woman -  _ his _ woman, and damn anyone who said differently - so severely he’d sent her to hospital. Although, he thought, looking down at Rose, she’d bounced back from such a thing admirably. Even allowing another man to get near her was a testament to that inner strength he’d sensed but not yet seen. “Rose…”

“It was a long time ago,” she said, stopping and looking up at him. He pulled her into a hug, tucking her head under his chin and holding her close. He could feel the slight shudder run through her and knew this affected her more than she’d like to admit.

“Just because it was a long time ago doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt,” he answered quietly. Flashes of Charley’s laughing face came and went through his mind. They stayed there, wrapped in each other’s arms in the middle of the sidewalk, making the few people still out and about walk around them, muttering about rudeness and impropriety.

Finally Rose pulled away, surreptitiously wiping her eyes. She didn’t strike him as one to cry often, especially not in front of others, so he looked away, letting her collect herself. A tug on his shirtsleeve made him look back at her, and she smiled. “I learned a lot after that,” she said, grasping his hand and pulling it so they could resume their walk. “I learned the kinds of men to avoid, then. Learned that what I wanted, what I  _ thought _ I wanted wasn’t always what was best for me. Probably a good thing I got sent to my great-aunt after all.” She smiled up at him, not her flirty little tongue-in teeth grin, but a shy one that spoke volumes. “She sent me here, after all, and I met you.”

Now how could he do anything after that but kiss her?

He kept it brief, but he poured all his unspoken feelings into it. He could only hope that she understood even a quarter of what he was saying. By the soft look on her face as they drew apart, he could tell that she did. She hugged his arm tightly, then they continued down the street.

He could hear the hot rodder race beginning, the rev of the engines echoing off the walls of downtown Calvey Creek. He could already tell that they were going much faster than what was generally allowed and frowned as they roared into sight at the far end of the street. Then the slight sound of a ball bouncing caught his attention. He turned toward the other side of the street and saw the red ball rolling into the street, followed closely behind by Deborah. The rumble of car engines made her look up. She screamed.

John was moving before he knew it. He hurtled across the road and grabbed the girl around her waist, throwing himself out of the way of the racing cars just before they passed. The sound of screeching tires roared in his ears as he tucked the little girl to his chest and landed hard on his back, that movement and the weight on his chest driving all the air out of his lungs.

“DEBORAH!”

Winded, John could only breathlessly hand Deborah off to her hysterical mother and accept Mr. Rocastle’s hand to help him sit up. Car doors slammed and the drivers involved began to rush over, but they were stopped by a short, angry blonde who let loose with a tirade that set their faces aflame. The drivers’ shame and embarrassment were so palpable that all the bystanders blushed for them, but Rose didn’t let up until a police car pulled up and an officer got out to take the situation in hand. It took the officer pointing out John still sitting on the sidewalk to get her to march away from the cowering young men, anger turning into concern as she saw him still trying to catch his breath.

“John! Are you all right?” she cried, kneeling down next to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. In response, he grasped the back of her neck and brought her mouth to his. She sighed and melted into him instantly.

The kiss didn’t last very long, partly because he was still a bit winded and partially because her sudden body weight leaning against his told him that yes, hitting the ground that hard had definitely done a bit of damage to his back. Nothing too bad, most likely just bruised, but it was still inconvenient for doing things like kissing his girl. He drew back quickly and groaned, one hand going to his back.

“Might need to have someone take a look at my back,” he admitted, stroking the frown lines that appeared on her forehead as though he could wipe them away. “I’ll be fine. Jus’ bruised is all.”

“If you’re sure,” she replied, sounding suspicious. He grinned at her, the daft-feeling one that he was fairly sure she liked most of all.

“I’m sure,” he promised. As she helped him up, he added, “Have I ever told you how much I love it when you’re all riled up?”

She looked up at him, a surprised expression on her face that quickly turned into a shy, pleased one. “Nope,” she said, “but I’ll remind you of that when we have a fight.” She nudged his shoulder gently. “C’mon, let’s go before Mrs. Baines gets her claws into you. Jack’s got some trainin’ in first aid, so he can help you out.” Indeed, it looked like Mrs. Baines was intent on getting through the throng of onlookers to shower him with thanks. He shuddered at the thought (the unnecessary attention, not Mrs. Baines) and allowed Rose to help him to the bed and breakfast.

As they hobbled along, they passed another flyer for the sock hop. John took a deep breath, feeling more confident about himself after that fantastic (if he did say so himself) rescue. “Rose?”

“Mm-hmm?” Even with him holding up most of his own weight, Rose was still slightly out of breath from him leaning on her.

“Want to go to the sock hop with me tomorrow night? Providin’,” he added hurriedly when she practically gaped at him, “that I’ll be feelin’ well enough to go?” By the time they reached the door to the bed and breakfast, he was feeling well enough to walk unsupported once more. He fidgeted a bit as she opened the door and didn’t answer.

“I don’t know,” she finally drawled, giving him that tongue-touched smile he loved so much. That inside joke danced again. “Does the universe implode when John Smith dances?”

He shrugged playfully, then winced as pain sparked across his shoulders. “Dunno,” he said, smiling tightly at her. She guided him to a chair in the mostly empty restaurant and made him sit down. She tried to move away, but he caught her hand and wouldn’t let her go. She rolled her eyes in exasperation but didn’t move again. “Wanna find out?”

“Of course I do. Don’t be daft,” she assured him. She bent and placed a kiss on his forehead before turning and coming face to face with Jack.

“What’s up, Rosie?” he asked. He looked worriedly at John and then back at Rose. “Everyone okay?” His tone implied a worry of more than just a tumble on the street.

John watched in puzzlement as a silent conversation took place between the two of them. Jack’s shoulders dropped in relief when Rose simply shook her head. “He landed hard on his back,” she explained. “Just want to make sure nothin’s broken or anythin’.”

Jack nodded in comprehension. “All right. Come on, old man,” he urged, pulling him up and ignoring John’s protestations of not being  _ that _ old. “I’m sure everyone in the neighborhood wants to see you shirtless, but it’ll be easier to do this up in my room.” John snorted at his phrasing, but nodded wearily and began the long trek up the staircase. Rose followed fretfully, hovering just behind him like she’d be able to catch him if he lost his balance and fell. A brief image of her squashed like a bug came to mind and he hid a grin. No chance, he thought amusedly.

As soon as Jack got his shirt off (not without much innuendo from him and eyerolling from the other two), he hissed in sympathy and sent Rose to find Mrs. Brown and see about something hot to try to negate the stiffness he was sure to feel tomorrow. He made him lay down on the bed on his stomach. “You’re gonna be black and blue, John. Mostly across your shoulders. I don’t think you’ll be able to work at all tomorrow.” He gave John a resigned look. “Dare I ask what happened?”

“Nothin’ you’re thinkin’, that’s for sure,” John replied immediately. Really, was that all the man thought about?

Jack looked surprised. “What? No, that’s not what I was talking about!” he protested. “I just assumed that Rosie got into trouble somehow and had to be gotten out of it. She’s good at that, you know.”

“Jeopardy-friendly,” John said in automatic agreement. He frowned at the feeling of deja vu his words caused, ignoring Jack’s suddenly wide-eyed gaze. “Wasn’t her though. Pulled a little girl out of the way of a couple of hot rodders racin’ down Main and fell on my back pretty hard.”

“What he means,” Rose’s voice sounded from the door, “is that he flung himself across the street and grabbed her just in the nick of time.” She approached the bed, holding a hot water bottle wrapped in some cloth and giving John a hard stare until he made a face and stopped trying to get up. He shivered as her hands brushed his bare skin, then gave a rather unmanly yelp as the almost too hot water bottle was placed on his shoulders.

“Oi!” he protested weakly, half-heartedly glaring up at her. She merely smiled innocently back at him, amusement shining from her eyes as she sat next to him on the bed. She placed her hands in her lap, wringing them until he brought one hand up and grasped them. He lifted his head up enough to see into her face. “I’ll be fine,” he promised again. “Just need a bit o’ sleep, me, and then I’ll be good to go.”

“You’re not going anywhere tonight, Mr. Smith.” They all jumped, John groaning after he did so, as Mrs. Brown suddenly appeared in the doorway. “Mrs. Baines has already been in here telling all and sundry about what you did. Least I can do for you is give you a room so you can stay here for tonight. Mr. Harkness, you can have the room on the other side of Miss Tyler’s. Now, you just let me know if you need anything and I’ll have it up in a jiffy, all right?” They all nodded dumbly. Satisfied, she nodded as well and bustled away, presumably making sure Jack’s new room was in order. They sat in silence for a moment.

“Well,” Rose finally said, her voice overloud and filling the room. She winced and lowered her voice a bit. “So she has spoken, so it will be, I guess.” She extricated her hands from John’s grip before grasping one hand again and squeezing it. “I guess I’ll go to bed. Gotta be well-rested for tomorrow after all.” She winked down at him and he managed a smile. The warm feeling across his back was beginning to lull him to sleep. The gentle hand and brush of a kiss across his brow only made the lull stronger. Add that in with the adrenaline crash and he was asleep before she left the room, the soft murmur of voices accompanying him into his dreams.

***

Rose waited until she was sure John was asleep before pulling Jack out of his - now John’s - room and into hers. He grinned lewdly and opened his mouth. “He’s remembering things,” she said without preamble, cutting him off quickly. It was always best to stop Jack before he got started or else it would go on for ages.

Jack shut his mouth and frowned, clearly wrong-footed by this information. Smirking slightly at his nonplussed expression, she opened up her handbag and pulled out John’s journal, tossing it at him. He helped her with the fastenings on her dress before tossing her pajamas at her and sitting down on the bed, opening up the journal. His fingers ghosted over pictures and writing alike.

“How can he remember this?” he asked, looking up at her in concern. “All his Time Lord self is locked up in that watch, right?”

Rose shrugged. “Hell if I know. He definitely believes he’s John Smith, but maybe the memories are just locked up and a few are coming out at night.”

“Maybe.” Jack’s voice was doubtful, but she noticed that he didn’t suggest any other ideas either. He continued to thumb through the pages, smirking when he got to the picture of her. His face turned sadder as he got to parts with him in it.

“He said he dreamed of you before he met you,” Rose remembered. “Distracted him from it by tellin’ him that you’d consider it proof that you’re the man of his dreams.” Jack snorted, but his expression lightened all the same. She could see the thoughts of how he could use this to his advantage playing across his face. Then he frowned, eyeing her suddenly.

“Where’s the watch?” he asked.

“What?”

“Where’s the watch?” he repeated, setting the book aside. “You’re always playing with it, but I haven’t seen you reach for your pocket all night.”

Rose bit her lip. “Er, Tim has it,” she admitted.

He stared at her.

“I dropped it at the restaurant last night. You know how I can hear the Doctor talkin’ sometimes? I heard him, plain as day, tellin’ me to drop it so Tim could hold onto it instead. Dunno why he wanted me to do it, but he did.”

Jack continued to stare at her. “Are you telling me that a thirteen-year-old kid has the Doctor?” he asked slowly.

“...yes?”

He sighed and sat down, scrubbing his hands down his face in exasperation. “I hope the two of you know what you’re doing,” he worried.

“We do,” she replied, trying to inject a bravado she didn’t feel into her voice. He looked at her knowingly and she scowled at him.

She decided not to tell him about the watch’s words to her that afternoon, about the Family being here. Jack was already pretty sure they were, after seeing that spaceship fall to Earth. No need to worry him any more than he already was.

A yawn caught her by surprise, and Jack laughed. “Guess it’s time for all little girls to be in bed,” he teased. He expertly dodged the swipe she made at him before gathering her up in his arms and squeezing tightly. “It’ll be okay, Rosie,” he said quietly. “It’s almost over with.” She hugged him back just as hard. He opened the door and stepped outside, closing it quietly. Turning the light off, she crawled into bed and sank into her pillow.

Then Jack poked his head back in. “Hey, Rosie?”

“Yeah?” she replied suspiciously. She practically could feel the mischief radiating off his frame.

“ _ Was _ there any hanky-panky?”

She threw a pillow at his face and hit him square on the nose. “Good  _ night _ , Jack!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for a longer chapter!
> 
> Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, much less an expert in traumatic brain injuries. I know enough about them to be dangerous, so if there's something in here that doesn't quite mesh with science, sorry about that. But if you've heard the story of Phineas Gage (if you haven't, [look here, it's fascinating](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage)), then you know that a TBI can manifest a multitude of symptoms, ranging from memory problems to a complete change in personality (again, see Phineas Gage). Also, there's a movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt called "The Lookout" that basically revolves around a TBI. Check it out, it's pretty great.
> 
> Did some research and the first satellite was sent up in 1957 (Sputnik, we've all heard of it). But if memories are bleeding through John's dreams, why not random facts as well? Also, Author Ex Machina.
> 
> Shameless plug: [A Cracked Mirror](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16201619) (if you like Naruto and a bunch of angst, you might like it?)
> 
> See you peeps on Wednesday!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has a bad feeling.
> 
> Jack is also a little shit.
> 
> The Family is up to something.

### 

Jack woke up that morning to a foreboding feeling in the pit of his stomach, like the one he’d had when he saw that spaceship land, but even worse. He quickly went through his morning ablutions before hurrying over to Rose’s room. He gave a perfunctory knock and barrelled in, unheeding of her outraged cry. “It’s just me,” he soothed, taking a quick glance to make sure she was semi-decent. She was in a slip, which he deemed good enough.

“Listen,” he said urgently. “Something's going to happen today.” She looked over at him, startled. Before she could say anything else, he hurried on. “I've lived a long time, Rosie, and I know when things are about to go down. I'm telling you, something is going to happen tonight.”

She nodded slowly. “All right,” she replied. “I'll keep an eye out. Have you heard anything from John yet?”

“Not yet,” he said, shaking his head. “He's my next stop. I think between the two of us we'll be able to keep him safe. I know you have the dance tonight - I heard him ask you last night - but I'll hang out with you during the day when I can.”

She shot him a thankful smile, then whipped her dress at him. “Now out! Let me get dressed, you pervert!” He waggled his eyebrows at her and slipped out before she could actually hit him.

He stopped at the door to his original room and knocked. He didn't hear anything from inside, so he quietly opened the door to peek in. John was still laying on the bed. His eyes were open, and his face was frozen in pain. Jack clicked his tongue and walked in, flipping on the light to better see his back. He winced in sympathy to see the mass of black and blue across his shoulders. “Geez, John, you really did a number on yourself, didn't you?” he commented. “Guess that's what you get when you're showin' off for your girl, huh?”

John gave a pale imitation of a laugh. “Yeah, that's it,” he agreed sardonically, shifting slightly. “Any chance you have some painkillers?”

Jack hesitated. He knew the Doctor was allergic to aspirin, and he wasn't sure if there was anything floating around that he  _ could _ give him. If something happened and John needed to turn back into the Doctor, it would be best to not have any kind of medication floating around in his system on the off chance it would hurt him. “Sorry,” he said apologetically. “Nothing on hand. Bet a good shower would help some though.”

John grunted, not moving. “If I could get up, it would be great. Too bad I don't think I can move.”

“Between Rose and me, we should be able to manhandle you into a shower,” Jack offered. He smiled deviously. “I bet Rose would be able to help you reach all the bits you’ll have trouble with.” He bit the inside of his cheek at the look of shock that crossed the man’s face at that. The shock was followed by intrigue, guilt quick on its heels. “Relax,” he laughed. “I’m pretty sure you can handle that bit of work on your own.” He gloried in the scowl John shot him, loving how he could get under the man’s skin so easily, Time Lord or no.

“How is he?” Rose asked from the doorway. Jack glanced down just in time to see John’s face turn bright red. The man buried his face in his pillow and groaned. Rose looked at him in a mixture of amusement and concern, one eyebrow raised. “I’ll take that as a ‘please let me die now,’” she commented dryly. “I’ll see about gettin’ some breakfast sent up.” She shot a suspicious look at Jack, who held up his hands innocently. Not looking convinced in the slightest, she brandished a reproving finger at him, then turned on her heel and made her way down the stairs.

Jack waited until he could hear her calling for Mrs. Brown before he approached the pathetic figure on the bed. “Up you get,” he cajoled, kneeling down and carefully pulling one arm over his shoulders. Between the two of them, they managed to get John up and walking toward the shared bathroom. John sat on the toilet while Jack got the shower running. He hesitated before leaving the room. “Um, do you need help with the rest of your clothes?" he asked tentatively. He didn't actually want to take John's clothes off, even though Rose would never believe it.

John glared at him. “I think I can do it meself,” he snarled.

Jack let the words roll off his back. He knew that the other man was embarrassed by how weak he seemed at the moment and was taking it out on him. “All right, if you're sure,” he shrugged. “I'll wait outside the door in case you need me. And don't say you won't,” he added, pointing a threatening finger at him. “You might feel better, but that doesn't mean you'll feel good. Just hurry up. Breakfast should be up pretty soon.”

John nodded curtly and Jack left, shutting the door behind him. He took up a post beside the doorframe, waiting for both Rose and John to get finished so they could get this day started. The faster they got started, the faster it would end and the trouble that was coming for them would be over with.

Rose smiled as she saw Jack standing guard by the door. “Are you there to be helpful or irritating?” she asked.

Jack grinned at her. "Oh, you know," he said. “A little bit of A, a little bit of B.”

“Is he almost done?” She lifted the tray in her hands. “Mrs. Brown overloaded us, I think, but here's breakfast, anyway. It smells good.”

He pointed to her room. “Stick it in there,” he ordered. “Once he gets out, I'll bring him over.” She nodded and did as he said, placing the tray on the small bedside table. He could see her hurriedly making the bed and watched as she picked up the rest of her things, making sure that there were no embarrassing items left lying around on the floor.

It wasn't much longer before John appeared in the bathroom doorway. He was looking much better than he had before his shower, even if he was still moving stiffly. The shower seemed to have done him a world of good, and Jack said so.

“Amazin’ what hot water can do,” the man agreed. He looked a bit uncomfortable, although why he felt so, Jack wasn't sure. It might have been the fact that he was still shirtless in front of Rose, though he doubted it. John was a practical kind of guy and the lack of a shirt shouldn’t have fazed him. It might be a contributing factor, but he had a feeling it was more because the man was in Rose’s room than anything else. Rose smiled at him (it was definitely for John and not him, Jack thought in amusement) with her signature grin. Jack watched as John’s eyes immediately zeroed in on her tongue and Rose blushed.

Jack rolled his eyes at all the UST and broke the tension by loudly announcing, “Okay, enough lovey-dovey stuff. I'm starving!” He pushed past John carefully despite his words, making sure not to jostle him too badly. John's ears turned red, but he smiled softly at Rose and went to sit next to her. 

“How are you feeling?” Rose asked John, picking up a plate and depositing a stack of pancakes on it.

“Been better,” he admitted, doing the same, though his stack was much larger. Mrs. Brown was right about how much food they'd need. Rose must have forgotten just how much the two men could eat, even if one was a human at the moment. “Been worse, though. During the war, my platoon got caught in a mortar shot. I was the only survivor. Was in hospital for weeks, just tryin' to get movin’ again.’

Jack gave him a startled look. The TARDIS had even incorporated memories of the Time War into his background? When he looked at Rose, she looked as surprised as he felt. He groped for words, but Rose beat him to it. “That must have been terrible,” she managed to say.

John didn't act as though he'd just dropped a bombshell on them. He shrugged slightly and said, “It’s not somethin’ I think about. Mourned them a long time ago. I’ve got too many other things to occupy my time now.” His blue eyes left no question as to what one of those things was, or rather who. Rose blushed and bit her lip.

Jack snorted. “You two are so twee,” he teased, stuffing a large bite of pancake into his mouth. “Are you planning on going to that fun fair? I’ve seen posters advertising the damn thing all over town.”

Rose looked over at John, raising an eyebrow. He grinned at her. “Don’t think I’ll be able to win you any prizes,” he warned. “Not too good at them even when I'm not injured.”

“I’ll just win one for you then,” Rose teased, winking at him.

“And I’ll tag along, just to cramp your style,” Jack announced, grinning as Rose gave him an annoyed look. “I’ll be the chaperone and chase you out of alleyways if I think you’ve been in there too long.”

Rose reached over and shoved him. He didn’t try to stop her, but he’d overestimated his balance and he crashed to the floor, landing straight on his ass. He blinked comically up at them, his plate still miraculously intact, pancakes and all. He carefully sat them down and gave her a narrow-eyed glare.

John chuckled next to her. “That’ll teach you to tease her,” he said airily, spearing another bite of pancake on the end of his fork. Rose shot him a look and reached across to help Jack back to his feet.

She really should have expected him to pull her down with him. And if it meant that she’d land on John’s lap? Well, Jack would carry the priceless look on John’s face in his memories for the rest of his days.

***

Father of Mine straightened his shirt, making sure it was tucked just so into his slacks. Mother of Mine adjusted her necklace and then straightened Son of Mine’s collar. Daughter of Mine smoothed out her skirt.

“Do you remember the plan?” Father of Mine checked.

"Yes," the other three responded in unison.

“We will spread out among the humans and look for the Time Lord and his pet,” Mother of Mine began. “Son of Mine will stay with me.”

“I will go with this body’s friends to the games around the fair,” Daughter of Mine spoke up.

Son of Mine scowled and said nothing. He was clearly unhappy to have to stay with Mother of Mine like an infant, but such was his fate thanks to Father of Mine, who had picked this family to possess.

“Correct,” Father of Mine praised. He offered his arm to Mother of Mine as he had seen on the television in the front room. Mother of Mine place one hand on it, the other grasping Son of Mine’s hand. Daughter of Mine obediently followed them out the door.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun! The Family is no bueno.
> 
> Shorter chapter, but it's always fun to torture poor John. Jack, you're such a brat.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a fun fair.
> 
> There's a bit of snogging.
> 
> There are bad things coming.

### 

John looked askance at the fun fair and all its frivolity. This had never been his kind of thing, not even before the war and Charlie’s death. There were too many people that all wanted to know about his life, something that, as far as he was concerned, was none of their business. Today was bound to be even worse, as Mrs. Baines was one of the worst gossips of the town. His rescue of little Deborah was bound to be one of the biggest topics of conversation. He scowled at the thought.

Rose squeezed his arm gently where she’d wrapped her own. “It’ll be fine,” she assured him. He had to bend closer to her to hear her voice. “They’ll all fawn over you for a moment or two, but it won’t take long before they decide that they’d rather have fun with all the games and things.” She paused, and her eyes sparkled wickedly as she added, “Probably.” John groaned in resignation.

Rose laughed happily and pulled him along to the first vendor, a woman selling handmade trinkets. Rose oohed and aahed over them, but she soon saw another vendor and went toward that one. John shook his head at her and followed. She flitted from one stall to the next, finding something at almost every one. There were a few items that she looked back at wistfully as she walked away, and it was those that he managed to pay for and slip into his pocket unnoticed. He picked one all on his own and slipped it into his other pocket before he could think about it.

They stopped at a few of the games, easy ones that even John could try. True to his word, he did terribly. He couldn’t even manage to pick a winning duck from the duck pond, and everyone knew that it was almost impossible to lose at that game. Rose tried next, and of course, she picked a duck that would win her any of the prizes she wanted. True to her word, she let him pick it out. She laughed when he (quite seriously) pointed out a stuffed banana and said he wanted it. The vendor handed it to her and Rose presented it to him with a flourish. He pocketed it and they moved on to the next game.

Jack followed them, strangely quiet for what John thought of as his usual self. His bearing was so much like that of a soldier, alert for any sign of trouble, that John dropped back to ask him what was wrong. Jack shrugged. “Got a bad feeling,” he said simply, and left it at that, no matter how much John tried to pry anything else out of him. Rose finally told him to leave it - if Jack didn’t want to say anything, he wouldn’t.

John caught sight of an alleyway that cut across to the next section of the fair and nudged her toward it, trying to get away from all the people. Rose looked in that direction and grinned up at him. “Are you tryin’ to take advantage of me, Mr. Smith?” she teased.

They broke through the edge and nearly sprinted for the safety of the dark street. Adrenaline flowing through him, he pressed her up against the wall and angled his head down. “Don’t really need to try, now do I?” he murmured, his lips millimeters from hers.

“Is that a banana in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” she managed to gasp, taunting him with that tongue-touched grin. He kissed her, chasing that wicked tongue with his own and burying his hands into her hair.

He didn’t know why he couldn’t seem to control himself around her, but he decided that it didn’t matter. As soon as his lips touched hers, she grasped the lapels of his jacket and drew him as close as she could. When this proved to be too much space for her liking, she wrapped both arms around his neck, being careful to keep from putting too much pressure on his shoulders. He put an arm around her waist, drawing her even closer. They both groaned as their bodies connected fully, then froze as Jack’s cheery voice rang out.

“Here I am, boys and girls, being the annoying chaperone!” he chirped. They both turned to glare at him. He just laughed and stepped back, holding his hands up. “I told you what I was going to do,” he protested. “Not my fault if you didn’t believe me.”

The moment gone, Rose sighed and pushed on John’s chest slightly. He reluctantly let go of her, surprised to find that his shirt was rucked up from where she’d slid a hand underneath. Her hair had tumbled from its pins, and she gave him a half-hearted glare as she gave up on trying to fix it and pulled the remaining pins out. She shoved them into his pocket (thankfully not noticing the other things in there) before trying to get the strands into some semblance of order.

They crept out of the alleyway and slid into the throng of people ambling along the sidewalk. John tried desperately not to think about what he and Rose looked like. Well snogged, probably. He resisted the urge to tug at his collar. Was it his imagination or were people staring at them more than usual?

It wasn’t his imagination, but they weren’t staring at him because he looked like he’d been halfway from getting off in an alley. Thanks to that detour (and Rose’s fantastic ability with her tongue), he’d briefly forgotten about people hearing all about his actions the previous night. It began slowly, people coming up and talking to him more than anyone in Calvey Creek ever had before, ever since he'd moved here three months ago. The citizens here weren’t rude or standoffish, exactly, but they’d all formed their little cliques when they were about three years old and grew up that way. The only way anyone could find entry into one of those groups was marrying into an old Calvey Creek family or having a child, as far as he could tell.

They inquired as to his well-being and expressed their gratefulness over his daring rescue of little Deborah Baines. Imagine, jumping in front of racing cars to save a child’s life! It didn’t take long before he was surrounded by a crowd of well-wishers and gossips. It took Rose whistling at them to make them stop talking for more than a moment.

“John is grateful for your concern,” she announced. He looked down at her in surprise, but she just squeezed his hand and continued. “Yes, he jumped in front of those cars to save Deborah Bailey’s life. Yes, he got hurt, but he’ll heal just fine. Just a couple of bruises. Anyone would have done it if they could.” Her nearly-gold eyes glared at all of them. “Any more questions?” As the suddenly abashed crowd muttered negatives, she nodded. “Good.”

John let her pull him away, grinning ear to ear as she muttered about people minding their own business. He had half a mind to pull her into another alley to show just how much he loved it when she got riled up, but the knowledge that Jack would pop up at the worst time kept him from doing just that. Instead, he tugged her to a halt and slung an arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to her hair and making them slow down from the march she’d been going on to a slower sort of amble.

Jack, who’d had to muscle his way through the crowd when it had begun to swell around the other two, caught up quickly. Some of his soldierly persona was gone as he looked at Rose, grinning. “Ah, Rosie,” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets, “I missed you going all Valkyrie on people like that.”

“Jack!” Rose hissed at him, making a slashing movement at her throat.

John laughed at them. “She did it last night too, when those drivers got out of their cars,” he told the other man. “I swear, everyone around them was embarrassed by the end of it.”

“That’s our Rosie,” Jack agreed, and dodged the swing Rose took at him. He took off, Rose right behind him, but they had to stop when a gaggle of teenage girls walked past them, all staring at John with the glazed-over look of the besotted. Rose took a step back toward him, taking his arm possessively. Her cool gaze made them hurry along, still sneaking peeks but not outright ogling him either.

All but one, anyway. Lucy Cartwright was staring at him too, but it wasn’t with hearts in her eyes. It was more calculating, and as she swept by them, she took a long sniff, as though she had a bad cold or something. John suddenly felt a chill of foreboding sweep down his spine, and as he looked at his companions, he saw that they looked worried as well. “That was odd,” he said cheerily, trying to distract them (and himself) from their worry.

“Yeah,” Rose said slowly. She looked at Jack, biting her lip. “Her dad did the same thing yesterday morning when he brushed by me on his way to work.” Much to his annoyance, they did that silent communication thing again, the one borne of long years of friendship.

_ Or a lot of life-or-death situations _ , a voice whispered in his head. After all, the two of them had featured in his dreams more and more often as of late. Usually during light-hearted times, but occasionally they showed up in the dangerous ones, one where the Doctor had to think fast and save everyone just in the nick of time. He scoffed at himself - since when were those dreams anything but?

“John?” Rose’s voice reached his ears and he looked down at her. Her expression showed that she’d called his name several times.

“What?” he asked gruffly.

“Are you all right?” she asked, head tilted. Her eyes had darkened to a dark brown in worry.

He smiled at her. “Just thinkin’,” he assured her.

“That explains all the smoke,” Jack ribbed. He smiled beatifically at John’s glare before glancing down at his watch. “What time does that dance thing start again?”

“6:00,” John and Rose answered in unison. They glanced at each other and grinned.

“Well, it’s 5:00,” Jack pointed out. “Rosie, you sure that’s gonna be enough time for you to primp and preen?”

“I think I’ll manage,” she replied, voice dry.

“And you,” he continued, pointing at John. “You’re coming with me to get my stuff and then we’re going to your apartment to get ready. Don’t argue with me!” he warned as John opened his mouth to do just that. He wagged a finger at him. “Rosie’s gonna take the bathroom for the entire time if I know her, so I need a place to get ready. Your apartment’s as good a place as any. Not to mention you’ll need my help picking out your clothes. Your fashion sense really is terrible.”

Jack continued to natter at them all the way back to the bed and breakfast, where Jack went into his room to get his stuff and John said goodbye to Rose at the door to her room. It may have consisted more of kissing than actual words, and he studiously ignored the bed he could see just beyond the door. He could only wonder at how this slip of a girl could make him have to fight his desires so often when he’d not had to worry about them for nigh on ten years.

Jack reappeared out of his bedroom soon after he’d entered it, startling them apart like teenagers surprised by a watchful parent. He smirked, but sobered. “I’ll meet you downstairs,” he said. “Need to talk to Rose for a minute.”

John eyed him for a second, then nodded once. “See you in an hour,” he told Rose, then went down the stairs to wait.

***

“I believe I have found them,” Daughter of Mine announced. The Family had reconvened at their house to update one another on their progress.

“Are you sure?” Father of Mine asked, placing a calming hand on Son of Mine’s shoulder. Son of Mine was eager to move onto a new body, he knew, but there was a time and a place. Mother of Mine had already had to bring him back early because he tried to enter another, older human’s body. Father of Mine was extremely displeased at Son of Mine’s disobedience and could only hope that Daughter of Mine was correct.

“I am almost certain,” she replied, smirking at Son of Mine tauntingly. The little boy’s eyes burned in anger at the sight. “I found Rose Tyler, the one with whom the Time Lord is traveling. The non-human aspect of her scent has been dulled somehow, and it was hard to discern, but I have matched it to the human aspect. There are two men with her. They must be the Time Lord and the man you smelled yesterday, Father of Mine.”

“Excellent work, Daughter of Mine,” Father of Mine said approvingly. “Do you know how we can get close to them?”

“There is a dance, what the humans call a ‘sock hop,’ later this evening,” Mother of Mine spoke up. “I heard from the owner of the lodging where Rose Tyler and the immortal man are staying that the other man, John Smith, asked Rose Tyler to go with him to this dance. We can confront them there and make completely sure.”

“That is a sound plan, Mother of Mine,” Father of Mine agreed. He glared down at Son of Mine, who cowered slightly at the sight of his father’s anger. “Do not do anything else. We will go to this sock hop and deal with the Time Lord and his Rose Tyler there. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> John, you dog.
> 
> Short chapter today, but the next chapter will hopefully make up for it!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a dance.
> 
> There's the Family.
> 
> There's a difficult choice to be made.

It was 5:55, and Rose found herself waiting patiently for her boys for the second time in two days. She had to pinch herself yet again at the thought that she was waiting for John ( _the Doctor_ ) to come and pick her up so they could go to a dance. She never saw something like this coming - after all, despite the differences between John and the Doctor, one thing that had stayed the same was that no-nonsense personality. Dancing was simply not one of the things he was interested in. Oh, she’d hoped that maybe John would ask her, but she hadn’t really thought he would. And then he had, looking oh so hopefully at her as he staggered into the restaurant after a heroic rescue that there was no way she could say anything but yes. She only hoped that the Family would stay away.

Looking around to make sure no one was looking, she felt the garter on her thigh and the weapon clipped to it. After Jack had sent John downstairs, he’d given her his Compact Laser Deluxe. “Just in case,” he said. She tried to joke about making sure it was clean, but it was clear that he wasn’t in a joking mood. “You can attach it to your garter like this,” he said, whipping up her skirt before she could stop him. She managed to stifle her instinctive outrage and urge to slap him, knowing that this was all business and this was the only time he’d be able to show her how to attach it. She paid close attention, nodded, told him it would be fine, thank you for giving me this, and then kicked him out.

Mary, already knowing all about how John had asked her to come with him to the sock hop, fluttered around doing everything she could to help. She clucked knowingly at Rose’s hair, styled oh so nicely by John’s fingers after their impromptu snog in the alley. She offered the use of a very old-fashioned curling iron, one that was placed in a fire to heat up, but Rose declined, deciding to leave her hair down and not risk burning the ends off. It wasn’t the fashion, but she didn’t really care either. She snapped a hair tie on her wrist in case she decided she wanted it up later.

Her favorite aspect of the whole thing was that she got to wear a poodle skirt and it wasn’t for a joke or a costume party. The skirt was the same shade as the TARDIS (as if she’d wear anything else), and placed with a white shirt and some saddle shoes that she’d been almost sure hadn’t been in the bag before, she thought she looked good for an impromptu invitation to a sock hop. It felt kind of silly to wear socks and stockings at the same time, but she needed a place to put the gun that wasn’t somewhere unmentionable.

As it got closer to six, she began to worry, just slightly. They knew the Family was here, had probably already taken over poor Mr. Cartwright and Lucy (and possibly Mrs. Cartwright and their young son if there were more of them), so Jack knew to be careful. But what if they’d been jumped in an alley, or even in broad daylight? Well, in plain sight anyway, she amended, looking at the rapidly vanishing light outside.

Her worries were unfounded, however. The two men walked through the door, strangely quiet as they were usually bickering. John’s relationship with Jack was almost the same as the Doctor’s was, though only time would bring the same fierce friendship between them. John’s eyes lit up when he saw her, while Jack only smiled slightly. He cut his eyes over at John and suddenly rushed in front of him, swinging Rose up, around, and away from him. “You look gorgeous, Rosie!” he said loudly. Under his breath, he muttered, “There’s two more of them. A woman and a little boy. They followed us, but I managed to lose them.”

Rose sucked in a breath, but before she could reply, John had elbowed Jack out of the way and placed an arm around her. He scowled at the other man. “Oi, what was all that about?” he demanded.

Jack gave him a beaming grin. Only Rose could tell how fake it was. “Just wanted to be the first one to tell her that,” he said blithely. He walked over to the door, opened it, and bowed. “If it pleases my lord and lady, it’s time to go to the ball.”

Rose huffed in amusement and took John’s hand in a decidedly not court-like manner. John rolled his eyes, but allowed her to pull him toward the door. Jack’s hand brushed her leg as she passed and she knew he was feeling to make sure she had his gun. As if she’d be so dumb as to leave it after he went to all the trouble of getting it to her in the first place! Slightly insulted, she snapped, “I’ve got it, Jack.”

“What do you got?” John asked as they walked down the street toward the park, the only place big enough for everyone to convene and dance.

“Pepper spray,” Rose replied quickly. She grinned at him. “Just in case you get too handsy tonight.”

He frowned in confusion. “What’s pepper spray?” he asked. Rose frowned too; why didn’t he know what pepper spray was? Jack chimed in smoothly.

“It’s a new thing the government’s developing,” he replied easily. His eyes were constantly moving, trying to pick out faces in the crowd beginning to develop around them. “Pressurized air in a can that sprays pepper into an opponent’s eyes. Hurts like hell.” He bent down and murmured in her ear, “Not invented yet.” Rose blushed at her mistake. John eyed them suspiciously, but didn’t say anything.

The park was decorated beautifully, with lanterns glowing from tree branches, tables laden with food, a raised platform near the entrance with a band getting ready to play, and a cleared out space obviously meant for dancing. Rose gasped at the beauty of it all and turned to John, who was watching her with a soft smile on his face. She recognized that smile - it was the same one the Doctor gave her when he thought she wasn’t looking, the one that showed all his feelings for her. She smiled back. “Ready to dance?” she asked. He mock-sighed.

“I suppose so.”

***

Daughter of Mine scowled down at the quivering human on the floor. Mother of Mine and Son of Mine had lost sight of the immortal man and the Time Lord, so she decided to check the mechanic’s shop to see if the two men had come here instead of picking up Rose Tyler. Alas, they had not, and now she was left with the problem of another human seeing what she really was. Father of Mine’s instructions on this point had been quite clear, so she took out her gun and shot the man, vaporizing him instantly.

A gasp caught her attention and she whirled around. A boy (Timothy Latimer, her body’s mind provided, son of Robert Latimer, the man she had just killed) stood up from behind the desk, staring at the place where his father was a second before. Daughter of Mine raised her gun again, pointing it at the boy, but the boy took something out of his pocket and opened it, brandishing it in her direction.

The image of fire and rage and a billion billion beings dying bloomed to life inside her head, and above all of it was the Time Lord. She screamed, dropping her gun, and ran, not caring where just as long as she could get away. She didn’t notice the boy running too, tears streaming down his face, straight toward the dance.

***

The band didn’t actually play dancing music at first. The protocol for things like these was apparently to mix and mingle with other participants first before there was any dancing. Not that John knew that, but he didn’t really care. He was just happy he didn’t have to dance yet. He knew he would have to at some point, but he’d happily take any delay he could.

Rose, of course, was chomping at the bit. “Why can’t they start the music already?” she whined to him, sounding more like a child than the woman she was.

“They did start the music,” he pointed out, hiding a grin behind his hand as he took a bite of some nibbles he’d procured for the two of them. He dodged her punch; one hit from her was enough.

“You know what I meant,” she grouched at him. He grinned openly this time, grabbing her around the waist and bringing her closer to him. She leaned against him, placing her hands on his where they spread across her stomach. They stood there, content.

Finally, John roused himself enough to ask, “Where’s Jack?”

“Patrollin’,” she replied, shrugging. “He said he has a bad feelin’ about tonight. He’s walkin’ around the edges of the party, lookin’ for trouble.”

“He’s really that worried?”

“Guess so,” she said. “But don’t worry, I’ll protect you with my pepper spray.” She grinned impishly up at him.

He rolled his eyes. “I don’t believe either of you,” he told her. Her mouth dropped open in mock-affront. “There’s no such thing as pepper spray.” She beckoned him nearer, and he shivered when her breath hit his ear.

“There is if you’re a secret agent,” she whispered.

“Rosie, you’ve gotta stop giving me away like that!” Jack’s voice suddenly sounded from behind them. They both jumped and turned to the tree behind them. Jack was leaning against it, looking smug at catching them off guard. “Not much point to the ‘secret’ part if you keep telling people!”

Rose laughed. “My bad, Jack.” She looked up at John. “So it’s not pepper spray.”

“Then what is it?” John asked her quietly. He didn’t imagine her own shudder when he spoke in such a low tone directly into her ear.

“Condoms.”

“ _What_?”

“ _Jack_!”

Jack’s face was completely innocent. “What?”

Rose and John looked at each other. It was easy to read her thoughts - who got the honor of killing her cousin? Before they could decide that, however, the band began to play a different sort of music. Jack made his escape during the set change, not that either of them noticed. Soon, even John was tapping his foot to the beat. That didn’t keep him from putting up his token resistance when Rose tried to get him to go over to where the other couples were dancing.

“Come _on_ , John!” she pleaded. “Let’s go!”

“Do we have to?” It was his turn to whine. “This tree looks like it needs help stayin’ upright,” he said earnestly, pointing to the very straight tree behind them.

The look she shot him was very much not amused.

“There’s still nibbles to eat!” he tried.

She crossed her arms.

“Jack needs help patrolling!”

“John Smith, you asked me to this dance, and so help me, you are going to dance with me,” she hissed, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the dance area. He grinned and swept her up, depositing her right in the middle. She blinked up at him in surprise as he grasped her hands.

“You’ll find your feet at the end of your legs,” he teased. “You may care to move them.” That flash in her eyes appeared, the one that he just knew meant an inside joke of some sort, and then she narrowed them at him, honey-colored eyes challenging.

“You’re on.”

They danced for a quite a while, simply holding onto each other with an ease that took his breath away. He felt like they’d danced before, so natural was the feeling. When he ventured this thought, she smiled up at him. “Maybe we have in another life,” she suggested.

“You believe in past lives?” he asked, surprised. She seemed too down to earth to believe such things.

“Nah, not really,” she replied, shaking her head. “But s’nice to think about, isn't it?”

“What, that we’re meant for each other no matter what?”

Her smile was radiant. “Somethin’ like that.”

A commotion caught their attention from the other side of the dancers. Tim raced to them, barrelling straight for Rose, who disentangled herself just in time to catch him. He was sobbing.

“Tim, what's wrong?” she demanded, holding him close. She ushered him over to the side, John grabbing some water and following them.

“They - they killed him!” he gasped out. Rose fell utterly still, her face freezing. “The Family, they were looking for the Doctor and one of them came into the garage. She killed Dad!”

Rose was quiet for a moment, holding him as sobs racked his body. “Where is the watch, sweetheart?” she asked several minutes later, hands on his shoulders so she could push him back slightly. Tim didn’t answer, still in shock. She shook him. “Tim!” she barked, and he blinked. John did too, stunned at the sudden harshness in her tone. “Where is the watch?”

“I-it’s here,” he said, touching his pocket. “She tried to kill me too, but I opened it and whatever she saw scared her away.” His lip trembled. “But Rose, my dad!”

Rose cupped his face in her hands. “Sweetheart, I know. I know what they did, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But you can't focus on that right now. If you do, they'll kill you too.”

John watched this in utter confusion. What the hell was going on? “What the hell are you talking about, Rose? Tim, what do you mean Robert’s dead? Who killed him?”

Before either could answer him, there was an explosion over by the stage. A couple stepped up onstage, both of them holding futuristic looking weapons that resembled guns. “Tim, give it here,” Rose whispered. Tim handed over something, presumably the watch that Rose had asked about. Rose took it and shoved it into John’s pocket. “Whatever happens,” she said firmly, “do not let anyone else have this watch.”

“What?”

“John, do you trust me?” Rose demanded, looking up at him. Her eyes were lightening, edging toward actual gold with every second. He looked down at her, still completely confused by what was going on. He knew the answer to the question, however.

“Of course I do,” he affirmed, cupping her cheek in one hand. As if there was any other answer.

“Then keep it safe. Don’t touch it if you can help it.”

Before he could reply, one of the people shot the ceiling. “There will be silence!” the man yelled. “All of you will remain silent!” Frightened of the weapons, the crowd did so.

A small voice broke the silence. “This is him,” a little boy announced. John looked down, startled to see a little boy standing in front of them. He breathed in deeply, almost as though he were smelling them. Rose shifted in front of him. “And this is her.” He eyed Rose with an expression akin to lust, something that looked absolutely nauseating on such a young child’s face. “I can’t smell the Vortex, but it is definitely her. Where is the immortal man?” he demanded, looking back at John.

John could see Jack slinking around the edge, doing his best not to be seen. He didn’t draw attention to the man. “Don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” he said. “Aren’t you the Cartwright boy?”

A sneer crossed the child’s face. “This body was, before I took it over,” he said disgustedly. “Soon I shall have a new body, a better one.”

“Father of Mine, he is the Time Lord,” a girl said. Turning, he saw Lucy Cartwright walking up, breathing heavily as though she’d been running. A man he knew as Mr. Cartwright strode up beside her, with his wife coming up beside him.

Comprehension dawned on Mr. Cartwright’s face. “You turned yourself human,” he murmured. “And did something to your companions to make them appear human as well.”

“What the hell are you talkin’ about?” John demanded. He saw the same confusion mirrored on Rose’s face. “I was born human. You were born human, Cartwright! What the hell’s goin’ on?”

“Oh, and he has a human brain, too,” the little boy laughed. “Simple and stupid.”

“As a human, he is no good to us,” Mrs. Cartwright pointed out calmly.

“You are right, Mother of Mine,” the boy agreed. He held out a similar kind of weapon his parents held and pointed it at John. “Change back into a Time Lord,” he demanded.

John’s head was spinning. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talkin’ about,” he spat.

The boy growled. “Change back!” he yelled. When John just stared at him, Mr. Cartwright made an impatient noise and grabbed Rose before he could move. He held the gun up to her head.

“This is your lover, isn’t it?” he asked lowly. “Do you wish her dead? Because I can do that.” He paused, watching the utter rage and helplessness cross John’s face. “Doesn’t this scare you enough to change back?”

“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about,” John roared. His thoughts went to the watch in his pocket, but surely that wasn’t what they wanted. And Rose said not to give it to anyone else…

Mrs. Cartwright grabbed Timothy and put her own gun to his head. “You have feelings for this boy. Paternal ones. Surely you would not want a boy like a son to die because of you?”

The Cartwright boy laughed again, and it made John shudder with how insane it was. “Have you enjoyed it, Time Lord, being human?” he asked. “Has it taught you wonderful things? Are you better? Richer? Wiser?” The eyes lit up with an unholy glee, and even his family shifted uncomfortably. “Then answer me this: which one of these insects do you want us to kill? Your lover or the boy?” A deranged smile crept across his face. “Your choice.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're finally getting to the action! Hope it's living up to the hype!
> 
> (Also, I looked up pepper spray. Though pepper was used for self-defense [and torture, who knew?] as early as 5500 BC, it was commercialized in 1965 by Allan Lee Litman. The genericized version is known, of course, as Mace.
> 
> Condoms, on the other hand, have been available to the public for a very long time. Possibly as early as ancient Greece and Rome, though it was apparently on the woman to prevent pregnancy [hmm, that hasn't changed much, has it?], but more probably 15th century China.
> 
> Yes, I put way too much research into the history of the condom. Don't judge me.)


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John learns the truth.
> 
> Bad Wolf rises again.
> 
> John makes a choice.

### 

John clenched his hands in useless rage. Choose who would die, Rose or Tim? How the hell was he supposed to make that kind of a choice? He glared at them, but said nothing. He looked at Rose helplessly and was surprised to see that she wasn’t afraid, or at least she wasn’t showing it. Her right hand, the one that none of the Cartwrights could see, was slowly inching up her skirt, high enough to where he could see her garter.

His eyes widened in shock, but the boy interrupted anything he might have said. “Perhaps if that human heart breaks, the Time Lord will emerge,” he said contemplatively. His smile turned even more sinister and he turned to Mr. Cartwright, who still had a grip on Rose. He raised his gun and pointed it straight at her head. Neither noticed her grab something off her garter and slowly let her skirt fall again.

“I don’t think so,” Jack said, slipping behind the Cartwright boy and holding another futuristic looking weapon to his head. His voice was hard, face set in stone. He looked every inch the immortal man the Cartwrights thought he was. “I suggest you let them go before I take care of sonny boy here.”

Mrs. Cartwright was the first to give in. She shoved Tim toward John, who caught him easily. Her husband gave her a disgusted look and let go of Rose. She turned around and glared at him, lifting her hand to reveal what at first glance looked like some sort of staple gun. Evidently it wasn’t, as the sneer on Mr. Cartwright’s face fell into an angry and somewhat fearful expression. “Where did you get that?” he demanded. “That’s a compact laser deluxe!”

“You really don’t want to know,” Rose responded calmly. Jack gave a short bark of laughter at her words. She ignored him and looked back at John and Tim. “All right there?” she asked. John could only nod, dumbfounded at her apparent comfort with what was some sort of laser that could kill, judging by the wary looks from the Cartwrights.

She nodded as well. “All right then.” Then she looked back at the Cartwrights, who had raised their guns again during their brief interlude. Her voice was as hard as Jack’s when she spoke again. “One more move and I’ll shoot.”

The boy laughed at her. “Oh, you think you are so powerful,” he sneered.

“Careful, Son of Mine,” Mr. Cartwright warned. “This is all so you can live forever.”

“Rose, what are they talkin’ about?” John asked. He was tired of asking that question, but no one was answering it.

Rose ignored him. “I killed half a million Daleks when they tried to kill him. What makes you think that the four of you are any different?” Her voice was low and threatening, and there was a strange thrum of power in it. The hairs on the back of John’s neck rose instantly, goosebumps appearing on his arms. There was something very familiar about it, though he wasn’t sure what. Whatever it was, though, it was dangerous. The Cartwrights obviously thought so too, for they all lowered their weapons and began to back away.

“This isn’t over,” Mr. Cartwright hissed, then gathered his family and left at a quick pace. They weren’t quite running, but it was obvious that whatever was going on with Rose had spooked them.

Rose watched them go. “Get everyone to their homes,” she ordered, looking back at him. Her eyes, always changeable, were gold. Not honey or whiskey or any of the other colors he’d noted during their time together, but actual gold. He shivered and did what he was told.

“Oi, everyone go home!” he called. “Nothin’ to do with you lot, so get home where it’s safe.” Nobody moved, everyone so petrified by the proceedings it may well not have penetrated their brains.

“MOVE!” Jack suddenly roared. His tone was familiar to a man who’d once been in the armed forces, and it took all John’s mental fortitude to lock his knees and stay where he was. He held onto Tim’s shoulder when the boy tried to bolt. The rest of the townsfolk hurried to do as they were told, and it didn’t take long before the park was completely empty save for the four of them.

Rose stumbled and fell to her knees, gasping. The two men both lunged for her, but John got there first, catching her before she pitched backward. Her eyes were closed and her face was white. She was shaking, though he didn’t know if it was due to an adrenaline crash or something else, maybe whatever had made her eyes change so dramatically. “What’s wrong?” he demanded, scanning her face worriedly. When she only moaned, he looked up at Jack. “We need to get her somewhere safe before whatever those things come back.”

Jack nodded calmly. “Let’s go to your place,” he suggested. “I don’t think they know where it is. Did that family have anything to do with you?”

John shook his head as he hoisted Rose up in his arms. Jack grabbed Tim’s elbow and pulled him along. Tim followed docilely, still in shock. “No,” John denied. “I passed Cartwright every once in a while when he was on his way to work, but that’s all.”

“Good,” Jack nodded, setting a fast pace in the direction of his flat. It didn’t take long to get there with as quickly as they were walking. Soon they were up the stairs and into the living room, the door locked behind them and the curtains pulled to so no light could escape. John gently laid Rose down on the couch, then grabbed a rag and wet it. He laid it across her forehead and sat on the floor next to her to better monitor her condition.

“Has something like this ever happened to her?” he asked Jack, who was busy settling Tim in one of the kitchen chairs. He whipped a blanket around the teenager’s shoulders and kneeled in front of him, rubbing his arms briskly for a moment. As color began to return to his cheeks, Jack stood up and ran a hand through his hair, sighing.

“Once,” he admitted, “but I wasn’t there.” His blue gaze bored into John’s. “You were, though.”

“What? No, I wasn’t. I’ve known her for three weeks, maybe.” John shook his head in denial, despite the sinking feeling that he knew what was coming.

“You were,” Jack pressed. “You’re the Doctor. She looked into the heart of the TARDIS and saved you, and I’m willing to bet she looked something like what she did at the park.”

“Jack, this is no time to be playin’ games!” John bit out. “I know you’re all flattered you were in those dreams before I met you, but that doesn’t mean anythin’!”

Jack stared at him for a moment, blinking. Then he laughed, though it lacked any humor. “You’re as completely useless as the rest of us when you’re only human, aren’t you?” he said scathingly. “Why the hell would I lie about something like that when at least five people are dead because of all this?”

“Dead?” Robert he knew of, but who were the other four? Unless… “The Cartwrights… That’s not them, is it?”

“No.” John whipped around and stared at Rose, who had opened her eyes (back to a regular brown now). She smiled weakly at him and struggled to sit up. He helped her up, watching her closely to make sure she didn’t suddenly pass out again. She continued. “They’ve been possessed by some aliens that we were tryin’ to outrun, some sort of family. We only had a few more days before it would’ve been safe, but they found us.”

John clenched his jaw. After the events of tonight, it was safe to say that he was quickly reaching the point of angry confusion. This was a state he usually tried to avoid, as he ended up saying scathing and hurtful things he later regretted to people he loved, or at least liked. “Rose, can you please tell me what’s goin’ on?” he asked as civilly as he could.

She sighed. “Everythin’ in your journal is real, John,” she said softly. “You’re the Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. You travel around time and space in your ship, the TARDIS.”

John scoffed. “That’s all a load of nonsense,” he protested. “Just dreams, that’s all they are!” A terrible feeling of panic began to well up inside him as she continued relentlessly.

“You’ve died and regenerated nine times. You destroyed your planet to keep the universe itself from being destroyed in the Time War. Then you met me, and we’ve been runnin’ ever since. We went to the end of the world, met Charles Dickens in Cardiff--”

“No!” he shouted, standing up. He didn’t cover his ears like a child, but it was a close thing. “No, you’re crazy, all of you! My name is John Smith! I grew up in Manchester and married Charley Pollard at the cathedral there, right before the war started. She died in the Blitz and I signed up with the army and fought in France. I moved here three months ago, for God’s sake!”

“The same as I did,” Rose replied calmly. “Except that my great-aunt didn’t send me here. I did come from London, but from the year 2005.” He turned away from the sympathy in her face. “It's real, John,” she pleaded. “The Doctor turned himself human and put the Time Lord bits of himself inside that watch in your pocket. We were supposed to wait three months and then you would open the watch and become the Doctor again.”

“So you’re sayin’ I’m a fake?” he demanded, nigh on hysterical now. “I’ve done my duty and kept him safe, and now all that’s left is to kill me, is that it?”

Rose stayed infuriatingly calm. She looked over at Jack. “Jack, can you take Tim outside and give me and John a minute to talk?” she asked. He nodded and urged Tim to get up, wrapping an arm around the teenager’s shoulders and taking him just outside the front door. He left it ajar, probably for ease of access in case they were found by this family, whoever they really were.

As soon as they were out of sight, Rose was in his arms, hugging him tightly. She still trembled slightly and he instinctively gripped her harder to keep her from falling. “I know it feels like I’m here to execute you,” she said bluntly, “but I’m not. I was here to protect you as much as I could. I didn’t even know you for the first two months we were here, but when we met there was a connection, wasn’t there? Somethin’ that you couldn’t explain?”

He refused to admit it. “He’ll never do anything,” he whispered into her hair. “He’ll just lead you along until you die or you leave.”

“It’s not leading me along if I know what’s happening,” she corrected gently. “But think about it, John. He’ll live so much longer than me - why would he set himself up for more heartbreak?”

“He’s a bloody idiot,” John snapped back. “Even if I’m just a story--”

“You are not a story,” she said fiercely. “You  _ are _ the Doctor, in all the ways that matter! Sure, you don’t have his superhuman abilities, but you _ are _ him. You’re the heart of him, the way he would be if he were human.”

“Still,” he argued, ignoring how her words made far too much sense. “He’ll still regret this in the end.”

“Maybe.” Her voice was a whisper against his skin. “But it’s his choice. Just like it’s my choice to stay with him forever. And if this is the only time we can get what we want, then I’ll treasure it.”

An idea bloomed in his mind. “What if I could give that to you?” he asked.

“What?” Her eyes were wide as he took the watch out and looked at it.

“I don’t open the watch. Jack takes care of the Family - it’s obvious he’d kill them if you let him - and we live out our lives together.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” she protested.

“You aren’t,” he replied quietly. “I’m offering.”

Rose placed a hand over his. A vision of a simple church, Rose in a white dress and John in a suit, appeared in their heads. It was replaced by the two of them walking along a trail, several children playing behind and around them as they chased each other. Then they lay on their deathbed, still wrapped around each other as they breathed their last. “We could have that,” he breathed painfully, his hold tightening around her waist.

She took a deep, shuddering breath, but as she began to speak, another explosion sounded, this one much closer to the flat than the one in the park. They broke apart and Jack rushed in, pulling Tim behind him. “We need to hurry,” he panted. “They’re on the next street over. I can give you cover to get to the alleyway. We can hotwire a car to get us to the TARDIS.” Rose nodded once at his words and took the watch from John’s unresisting hand.

“We need to get to the TARDIS if nothing else, no matter what you decide,” she said. “We’ll be safest there, and we can figure out what to do next. John, come on.” She grasped his hand and led him to the door. She peered out, looking around before opening it fully. “Run!”

They ran, the feeling heartbreakingly familiar now that he was beginning to understand what was going on. They made it to the alley without incident, though they heard a shot and a wailing cry. One of the aliens had just been hit, they knew, and they could only hope that they could find a car quickly. But as they reached the opening to the next street, Daughter of Mine stepped out from behind the building’s wall. “You are not going anywhere,” she said. Strange how a teenage girl could sound so menacing, John thought wildly as he looked back the way they’d come. Father of Mine was blocking that route, Mother of Mine joining him. Her face was twisted in rage. When Son of Mine failed to appear, it was clear that he’d been the one shot. Good, he thought. Son of Mine was the craziest one of all.

“You killed my son,” Mother of Mine snarled. Her form began to waver, as though she were losing control of it. “I will greatly enjoy killing you in return!” She leaped forward, only to suddenly stop in midair, looking confused. She stepped back and tried again, only to meet with the same result. John looked at Rose and froze at the oddly familiar golden aura beginning to surround her.

“It’s your choice, John,” she said simply, holding the watch out to him. He looked at it lying innocently in her palm, taunting him. When he looked back up, her eyes had turned gold again and were beginning to glow. “I’m not going to tell you what to do. But you don’t have much time - I can’t do more than keep them away from you and Jack can only hold them off for so long.” She smirked. “The special features on his gun drain the battery, you know.”

Then she turned back toward the Family, her hands beginning to glow with the same golden light that surrounded her. She blocked the creatures’ path to him, no matter how they tried to attack. She whirled and twisted, streams of light following every movement of her hands. Her eyes were shining pure gold now, no pupils to be seen. There was no hint of the warm brown he loved, just the fierce, merciless gaze of a warrior goddess. He suddenly remembered Tim’s words from a few days before.

_ She’s really a wolf in sheep’s clothing, though. Threaten her mate and she’ll tear apart the universe to keep him safe. The big, bad wolf won’t just blow their houses down. She’ll atomize them. _

John suddenly knew what was happening, had seen it happening in what weren’t just dreams, but memories. “Bad Wolf,” he whispered.

Those terrible eyes fixed on him at his words, just for a moment. “I want you safe, whether you are John Smith or the Doctor,” she said, her words reverberating in the air. “You are the same, and I will protect you even from yourself.” For all it was merely a breath of sound, John flinched at her words as though she had shouted. He remembered the terrible feeling of horror that had coursed through the Doctor as he watched her wield the power of the Time Vortex, remembered it because now he was feeling the same thing.

He made a decision. He swallowed hard, and with one last glance at the golden figure still defending him, he opened the fob watch.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally finished the story. Last night. Amazing how long it took to write a little over 3k words.
> 
> Also, switching back to writing in past tense when you've been writing in present tense for over a year is surprisingly difficult. Just FYI.
> 
> Hope you like the chapter!


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor comes back.
> 
> Bad Wolf takes care of business.
> 
> The Doctor learns something surprising.

### 

Pain was all he could feel for long moments. If turning human had been painful, turning back into his Time Lord self was a thousand times worse. Excruciatingly so, if that word was even strong enough. Must have been the difference of complexity in their physiology. Humans were so simple, with their singular vascular system and lack of other advanced physical characteristics. How on Earth did those little apes cope?

He wasn’t sure exactly what was going on - apparently, he’d have to assimilate the memories of life as a human when he got the chance - but it was obvious that those life-suckers had found them. He could feel Jack’s diamond-hard timeline nearby and winced at the conversation to come, but most of his attention was focused on the glowing figure in front of him. He should have been much more worried at the sight of Rose looking as though she’d looked in the heart of the TARDIS again, but the only emotion that he managed to dredge up was fury at the Family. (There was a painful hope that this somehow wouldn’t kill her, but it was a background feeling, one pushed to the side as detrimental to his mental state. He needed all his faculties to take care of this one, he knew.)

“You just couldn’t stay away,” he said quietly. The Family all heard him and flinched away from the raw anger in his voice. He saw the moment they realized that they’d angered someone much more powerful than themselves and felt vicious satisfaction at their terrified faces. A vindictive smile tilted his lips as he shoved his hands into the unfamiliar jacket’s pockets and merely looked at them, ignoring the contents of the pockets his hands brushed against.

They wanted to live forever? He’d give them that.

“Remember the promise you made when you chose your name,” Rose’s ethereal voice said softly. Startled, he turned and looked at her, vaguely seeing Jack raise his gun in response to Father of Mine’s slight shift toward the alley’s entrance. The golden glow that had surrounded her had faded once she’d spoken, though her eyes were still much too gold to be just Rose in there.

“What?” He knew what she was talking about, of course. His ninth self, his war self, hadn’t been able to adhere to that promise, and so he’d chosen to not think about it after the end of the Time War. He could never be that man again, or so he’d thought.

“Your promise, Doctor,” she repeated, eyes hardening at his deliberate obtuseness. The sight was slightly terrifying in a being that could take you out of existence with a negligent wave of her hand. “You would make them live forever when you know what it is like. Worse, you would have them do it alone. You know how that feels. Would you really wish that upon them?”

He opened his mouth to give a flippant reply (something he was good at in this body, he’d noticed) but closed it quickly at her look. Even as Bad Wolf, Rose Tyler was always trying to make him better. “No,” he admitted, shoulders slumping.

“Take them back to the planet. They can live out for the remainder of their lives there.” She turned those golden eyes on the Family, who shrank back from the power in them. “We can only hope that they will contemplate the wrong they have brought upon these people.” She stretched out a hand. A crack appeared in midair, one that quickly opened into a portal. The console of the TARDIS could be seen on the other side.

She glanced at Tim. “Timothy Latimer, please go back to the Doctor’s residence. We will return shortly.” Tim nodded dumbly and did as he was told. Her eyes swung back to the rest of the people in the alley. “Jack Harkness, Doctor, go through the portal. The Family and I will follow behind.” Obediently, the two men walked through, the Doctor looking over his shoulder the entire time. He wasn’t really worried that the Family would do anything to Rose, as she was nigh-on vengeful right now, but old habits died hard.

His caution was unwarranted, though it took some time for the Family to scurry through the portal. When they caught sight of him, they huddled against the wall farthest away, faces pale. He frowned in confusion. When Rose came through, expression quite blank, he asked, “What happened?”

Golden eyes glanced at him with faint reproach hidden in the depths. “I told them what you would have done had I not been here.” He ducked his head, cheeks reddening in shame. He would have been afraid of himself too. He saw Jack’s curious glance and busied himself with the dematerialization process. To his surprise, Rose - no, Bad Wolf - helped him pilot the TARDIS to the planet the Family had found them on. Of course, at the moment she practically was the TARDIS, so she probably knew how to do it better than he did at the moment.

With two pilots - Jack was busy watching the Family to make sure they didn’t try to do anything desperate, like hijack the ship - the trip was over quickly. The doors opened by themselves, and with a last glance at the two powerful beings by the rotor, the Family filed out wordlessly. Jack followed them to the doors, then shut them quietly. Bad Wolf placed a hand on the rotor and the TARDIS started of Her own accord, sending them into the Vortex and, according to the coordinates he glimpsed on the monitor, back to John Smith’s flat. The landing was smooth, no jarring or bumping sending them off-balance.

A tentative knock came from the doors. Jack raised his eyebrows and peered out one of the windows, then opened one side. Tim cautiously stepped in, a slight look of awe on his face as he took in the bigger-than-the-outside room. The Doctor frowned at the sight of a teenager in his ship. He really needed to reintegrate those memories so he knew just what exactly was going on. There was a reason Bad Wolf had wanted him close by, but damned if the Doctor knew what it was.

Bad Wolf smiled kindly, if sadly, at Tim, and opened her arms. Tim rushed into them, not hesitating at the unearthly look of her, and hugged her tightly around the waist, burying his face in her shoulder. She stroked his hair gently as he shook. After a moment, she said softly, “We are sorry, Timothy Latimer. If we could have prevented it, we would have. Now sleep.” He pulled back and looked at her incredulously, opening his mouth to no doubt demand how he was supposed to do that. Bad Wolf placed a hand to his temple and he slumped bonelessly in her arms, though she showed no sign of strain. She laid him across the grating carefully before standing up and looking at Jack, eyes apologetic.

“We know you have had a hard life, Jack Harkness, and we are sorry for the pain caused by our actions,” she said, “but you are as integral to the fabric of this universe as the Doctor is and therefore we did what was needed.” Jack nodded, face pale.

“I thought there was a reason,” he said, trying to smile. “Just glad to know it for sure.”

She smiled slightly, but it fell. “We have been in this body for too long,” Bad Wolf said. “This body will be changed.”

“Changed?” the Doctor repeated sharply. “What d’you mean, changed?”

“This body has already held the Time Vortex once,” Bad Wolf explained. “Mental attributes were changed then, as a human consciousness could never hold it for the length of time we did. When the Vortex was taken out, some of it stayed behind, which is why this body was able to become the Bad Wolf once again.” Her gold eyes were serious. “There will be physical changes. The more often Rose Tyler accesses the power within, the more things will change, until Rose Tyler will change so much that she will simply become part of the Vortex. She will not burn so much as she will simply cease to physically be.”

Her eyes found the Doctor’s. “Remember, Doctor, Rose Tyler makes you better always, and will  _ always _ do so if you but let her.” Her voice was imploring, her words holding a meaning deeper than what he could construe. He didn’t know what to say - surely she wasn’t implying what he thought she was? - and so he nodded instead.

She seemed to sense his confusion, for she just shook her head in faint, knowing amusement. She closed her eyes and exhaled a long, golden stream of energy that flowed into the walls of the TARDIS. When her eyes opened again, they were a tired brown. One side of her mouth quirked up in a pale imitation of a grin. Then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she pitched forward. Jack barely managed to catch her before she banged her head on the grating. He looked up at the Doctor. “Medbay?”

“Medbay,” he agreed, and gathered Tim up in his arms.

The trip to the Medbay was short, as always. It was one of the few rooms in the entire ship that She didn’t move on a whim, and it was always in the same place no matter what desktop theme She was using at the moment. When they arrived, they placed Rose and Tim on biobeds. The Doctor checked Tim over quickly, but it was as he’d expected: Bad Wolf had simply made him fall asleep. He still didn’t know what had happened that had been so terrible, but he’d better find out if Bad Wolf thought it better that he sleep than stay awake to face the day just yet.

While he verified his thoughts on Tim’s condition, Jack hooked Rose up to various machines, monitoring all sorts of vital statistics. Her pulse rate was steady, her breathing was the same as ever, and her brainwaves were about what could be equated with just be a deep sleep. They all told the same story - she would be fine. Relieved by the news, he bent down, cupping her cheek in one hand and brushing his lips against hers. The movement was so second-nature that alarms bells went off in his head. He swiftly stood upright and backed away in confusion.

A muffled snicker drew his attention, and he turned to find Jack watching him with amusement. “Have to say, Doc, it’s way less weird seeing you kiss her than John doing it,” he said.

“What?” the Doctor yelped. “What d’you mean, John kissed her?”

Jack stared at him blankly, opening and closing his mouth as he groped for words. He couldn’t find any for a long moment. Finally, he managed to croak, “Don’t you remember?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Side effect of the transformation,” he explained. “Can’t remember a damn thing. Gotta assimilate the memories. Now, what d’you mean John kissed her?”

“Nope,” Jack replied immediately, holding his hands up and backing away. “Not answering that. I’ve only been here for a couple of days, and it started way before that.” He motioned toward the Medbay door. “Go do whatever it is you need to do to remember. And change, for God’s sake. You look like a greaser in that jacket.”

The Doctor scowled at his noncompliance, but he reluctantly agreed that the other man was right. Who knew just how all this had started? What was “this” anyway? Was it a one-time thing? Had they gotten married or engaged or something? He snuck a look at Rose’s left hand and was comforted to not see any engagement or wedding type of ring, although there was a biodamper on her index finger. (He wondered why that was - surely the Family wouldn’t be able to pick her scent out from the over two billion other humans in the world at this point. Jack wore one too, he noted, though that was more understandable. He was surprised that the TARDIS had been able to rouse Herself enough to give the rings to them.)

He walked toward the door.

“Just don’t be angry at her, Doctor,” Jack called after him.

The Doctor paused at the doorway and looked back at him. Had Jack been gone so long that he’d forgotten? “I could never be mad at her,” he replied quietly, then left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... surprise? Early update, yay?
> 
> I researched (and did not get distracted by the history of the condom this time) and in the 1950s there were only about 2.5 billion people on the planet, give or take, as opposed to the 7 billion or so there are now. Crazy!
> 
> Also, I changed it up just a bit to keep the Doctor from remembering right away. It was totally all for that kiss he gave her in the Medbay. Mwahaha.
> 
> NaNoWriMo starts next week. 50k words in 30 days. Doable - obviously, since this story is a product of the first time I won - but I need all my attention on writing. So lucky for you, I'll post a chapter a day until they're all up!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor regains his memories.
> 
> Jack and the Doctor have it out.
> 
> Rose and the Doctor have to deal with the changes in their relationship.

The Doctor stood in the shower, letting the feel and smell of Missouri circa 1954 wash off him. He didn’t really need one, but being human for three months had left some habits ingrained. One of them was that John Smith liked to think whilst he got clean. The Doctor had to agree with him. There was something about the hot water pounding on his skin that helped him get his jumbled mind into some semblance of order.

His mind slid back to the memories of the past three months floating around in his head. He didn’t even know what to feel at this point. Anger had no part in it, not even directed at himself. As he’d told Rose in the video, John Smith was him, just without all the Time Lord-y bits. Was it really any surprise, therefore, that he’d fallen just as hard for Rose Tyler as the Gallifreyan version of himself had? She hadn’t done anything to encourage him into a relationship beyond friendship that first day - it was entirely of his own making. It wasn’t like she could realistically refuse, either; she didn’t know how John Smith would react to her letting him down and couldn’t risk him doing something stupid like leaving town.

Snatches of John’s memories suddenly flashed through his head. Slow at first, it quickly became a deluge and all he could do was clench his eyes shut.

_“You weren’t exactly what I was expectin’.”_

_Changeable eyes that went through every shade of brown imaginable, never the same from one moment to the next._

_Laughing fit to burst at the girl next to him because she hadn't thought her great escape through._

_The unsettling feeling that he'd fallen for a girl nearly half his age after spending less than an hour with her._

_Visiting that girl two days later and falling for her even harder than he already had._

_Walking around town and telling her about Charley, even though he hadn't spoken of his dead wife to anyone else almost since the funeral._

_Flirting at the church’s potluck dinner and ignoring the old biddies who clucked disapprovingly at them._

_Her going missing and coming back, brought back by her cousin._

_That kiss, the one that wasn't planned but was perfect all the same._

_Admitting to Jack he wanted to marry her after only three weeks of knowing her._

_Saving Deborah Baines' life and asking her to the sock hop._

_“Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”_

_“You’ll find your feet at the end of your legs. You might care to move them.”_

_“You’re the heart of him, the way he would be if he were human!”_

_The vision of their future if he stayed human._

The very last memory that appeared wasn’t a memory at all, or at least it didn’t seem that way. He stood in the console room of the TARDIS. The doors were open to the sight of the two galaxies known to Earth astronomers as the Rose. (He snorted when he saw it - way to be subtle with the symbolism, he thought.) Standing at the doors and looking out at the view was himself. Or rather, he amended, looking at the clothes, it was John Smith. It was obvious that this was the human version of him, the heart of him if Rose was right. She usually was when it came to matters like this.

John Smith turned and glared at him. “The only reason I opened the watch was because I couldn’t protect her from herself,” he spat. “She would have burned to keep me alive, and I knew the only way I could stop it was to become you again.” His hard gaze bored into the Doctor’s own. “You don’t deserve her.”

“You’re right,” the Doctor agreed, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I don’t.”

“And that’s your problem,” John snapped. “You don’t think you deserve anyone, even though you do. Yes, you ended the Time War, but you did it to save the universe. You saved more lives at that moment than you ever had or ever will again. And now you’re goin’ around and savin’ more people to try to atone for somethin’ you don’t have to atone for! Weren’t you listenin’ to Jack when we talked that first night?”

“Like Jack knows what he’s talkin’ about,” the Doctor scoffed. “He’s all about lovin’ and leavin’!” He ignored the fact that Jack probably knew damn well what he was talking about. He’d seen the look in his eyes, the one that spoke of heartache and loss. He didn’t want to think about what could happen if he did.

His double wasn’t fooled. “You’re a bloody idiot,” he said scathingly. He whirled around and stared at the Rose, taking deep breaths. When he was calmer, he turned around again. “Just give it a chance,” he pleaded. “You’ll regret it more if you don’t. You’ll have all those ‘what ifs’ rattlin’ around your head for the rest of your life after she’s gone.”

The Doctor blinked, and all of a sudden he was back in the shower. The water had gone shockingly cold, a hint from the TARDIS that he’d been in there for much too long since otherwise, the hot water would never run out. Shivering, he reached out and turned the taps off, then grabbed a towel and roughly dried himself off. He strode naked to his bed, where the blessed sight of his usual clothing awaited him, including his beloved jacket. As he shucked it on, he finally felt like himself.

Refusing to dwell on his doppelganger’s words at the moment, he went back to the Medbay, where Jack sat in between the two occupied beds. Both Rose and Tim were still out of it, though he’d been only gone for 45 minutes, an hour at the most. He would have been surprised if either of them had woken up while he was gone. He quietly sat down on the other side of Rose, avoiding Jack’s questioning gaze by the simple expediency of not looking at him.

Jack let out an impatient sigh. “Well?” he asked.

“Well what?” the Doctor replied gruffly. He didn’t want to have this conversation. “If you wondering if I’ve got my memories back, yes I do. And no, I’m not discussin’ them with anyone else but Rose.”

A muscle in Jack’s jaw tightened. “Fine,” he said shortly. “Then tell me this: why did you leave me behind?”

The Doctor flinched. He didn’t really want to have this conversation either, but after Jack had taken care of Rose and saved his human self, he figured he owed it to the man. Then he gave a mental shake of his head. No, he owed it to him because Jack had once been his friend, and had a great wrong done to him by one of the people he trusted most. It was the least he could do to explain. Maybe then their relationship could be repaired somewhat, though the Doctor held no illusions that it would be the same as before. Betrayal changed things, and that was what he had done, plain and simple.

He squared his shoulders and admitted, “I was a coward.”

“A coward?” Jack repeated blankly.

“Yeah,” the Doctor said. With a bitter chuckle, he added, “She was right. I haven't been living up to that promise. When I chose the name Doctor, I made a promise to myself,” he explained. “‘Never cruel nor cowardly.’ I ran away and forced you to do the same thing I have to do, livin’ a long time alone, somethin’ that I would have done to the Family with no regrets.” Jack stared at him in confusion for a moment before a horrified realization spread across his face.

“How long have you known?” he demanded.

The Doctor sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Since the Game Station. You’re what Time Lords called a fixed point, Jack. When Rose brought you back, she didn’t have control of the power she used and brought you back for good.” He paused, gathering his thoughts. “Fixed points are events that have to happen. If one gets changed, it can tear the entirety of the universe apart. I always know when I’m around one - it’s like an itch I can’t quite scratch. Too long around one and it borders on painful, so I try to stay away from them as a rule. They’re not supposed to be livin’ beings. I didn’t know how it would work, exactly, but I knew you wouldn’t be able to die, not permanently.” He stopped, tilting his head as he realized Jack’s presence wasn’t nearly as irritating as he’d expected to be. “I thought that bein’ around you would be much worse, to be honest. Even John Smith felt it, and he didn’t have anythin’ more than a residual sort of Time sense.”

“You might be used to it by now,” Jack pointed out. He wasn’t shouting, which was always a good sign, but his usual carefree smile was gone. “I’ve been around for a couple of days at this point. Or maybe Bad Wolf did something.”

“Maybe.” The Doctor sat and stared at Rose’s peaceful face for a bit. “When I left you behind, I thought I was about to regenerate. I wasn’t thinkin’ straight, that’s for sure. Rose said I went a bit crazy when I was takin’ us back to Powell Estates. Fell into a healin’ coma - basically that’s what’s happenin’ to Rose right now, by the way - and we’d just gotten back to travellin’ when the Family started chasin’ us.”

The two men were quiet for a moment. Then Jack asked quietly, “Did you ever plan on coming back for me?”

The Doctor’s shoulders slumped. “No,” he said bluntly.

“That’s why you told her I was helping rebuild the earth.” Jack’s voice was hard, but he couldn’t hide the hurt underneath it. He laughed bitterly. “You wanted to her to think everything was okay, or that I was dead, so she wouldn’t make you go back, didn’t you?”

“It wasn’t my proudest moment, all right?” the Doctor snapped back. “I’ve made some bad decisions, but that’s one of my worst. The least I could’ve done was explain what’d happened and taken you somewhere instead of leavin’ you alone.”

“Ankle deep in Dalek dust and corpses,” Jack reminded him.

The Doctor flinched again at the thought. “I’m sorry, Jack,” he murmured. “I know it’s probably far too little too late, but I am sorry.” He thought back to those earnest words Jack had told John during their conversation about Rose. “Do you want to die?” he asked. There’d been a fair few times over the course of his lives that he’d asked himself that question. Usually, it was after someone had died - a companion, a friend he’d made from the planet. Did Jack feel the same? No matter what he’d told that strange vision of John Smith, he knew damn well that Jack had loved and lost, probably several times.

Jack was quiet for a moment. “I’ve seen places on Earth that only a few people ever will,” he said finally. “Climbed Mount Everest, walked across the entire Sahara, and so much more, but there’s only so much to do on Earth for someone who won’t ever die.” He looked up at John, blue eyes open and honest. “If I have to stay right here, right now, then yes, I do.”

“Come with us,” the Doctor offered. “I know it… it won’t be the same as it was before. You’ve changed, lived a lot longer - how old are you now, by the way? Roughly,” he added, knowing how hard it was for Time Agents to keep track of their age. They didn’t have a Time sense like Time Lords did, after all.

“Roughly?” Jack closed one eye and looked at the ceiling, thinking. “I landed here in 1869, so it’s been nearly a hundred years since I last saw you. Maybe 130?”

He sucked in a quick breath. That long already? Well, at least he wasn’t aging normally, not even for a 51st-century human. Bad Wolf strikes again, he supposed. “Like I said, I know it won’t be the same, but you can come with us. You know, if you want to. Or I can drop you off wherever you want.” He knew he was beginning to sound a bit desperate, but he didn’t really care.

Jack held up a hand. “Doctor, it’s not that I don’t want to,” he said. “But I don’t know if I can trust you again. I might be able to later, but right now?” He shook his head. “If we went somewhere and something happened - and you know it would - I wouldn’t trust any orders you gave me. I’d be constantly wondering if you had ulterior motives behind them.” He paused. “I’m not saying no, I’m just saying not right now. Just fix my manipulator and give me a phone like Rosie’s, so I can call you when I’m ready to travel with you again.”

The Doctor wanted to argue, but held his tongue. This was him doing his best to make it up to Jack. If what Jack thought he needed was time away from anything Earth-related, including Rose and him, then that’s what Jack was going to get. He’d make a stop to get a phone and jiggery-pokery it, fix the Vortex manipulator, and set Jack loose on the universe. He only hoped he wouldn’t regret it later. The former conman could go anywhere, twice. The second time to apologize.

“All right,” he agreed. “You’ll wait until Rose wakes up though, right?”

“Of course I will,” Jack scoffed at him. Then he yawned. “That being said, I’m off to bed. Is my room…?”

“Same place it always was,” the Doctor assured him. Jack waved a sloppy salute and left, leaving him to sit alone with the two occupants of the Medbay and his own whirling thoughts.

***

Rose groaned and rolled over, feeling like her brain was about to pound right out of her skull. What the hell had happened? Did she go bar hopping with Jack and overdo it on the hypervodka? She’d sworn she wouldn’t do it again after she’d spent half the morning with her head down the toilet, the disapproving presence of the Doctor in the doorway lecturing her on the dangers of overconsumption of alcohol. The promise was more about avoiding another health lecture from the Doctor rather than the wish to never have another hangover as bad as that one was. At least he’d relented in the end and given her one of those handy 43rd-century hangover cure pills.

“Easy there, Rose,” she heard the alien in question say. “You had a bit of a rough night last night.” He murmured something to someone and the lights dimmed considerably, enough to where she felt like she might be able to crack her eyes open without dying. She frowned when she did so, looking around the Medbay in confusion. What was she doing here? Did she overdo it so badly that she’d gotten alcohol poisoning or something?

The sonic buzzed gently around her face and head. She tried to swat at it, but the Doctor pulled it away with a practiced move. “Everythin’s normal,” he announced. “Except for a splittin’ headache, which is to be expected after channeling the Time Vortex _again_.” His words and tone were playful, but as her vision adjusted, she could see his eyes. There was a relief in them that told her how worried he really was.

She was more interested in his words, though. “What are you talkin’ about?” she demanded. “I didn’t go lookin’ into the heart of the TARDIS again, did I?”

He snorted at her. “Nah. Bad Wolf showed up again. Guess I didn’t get it all out the first time around. She popped up to protect me - well, John - from the Family while he opened the watch.”

Just like that, the memories slammed into her. Her hands went up to her head and she squeezed her eyes shut in pain. She could vaguely hear his panicked voice asking what was wrong, but couldn’t muster the will or the strength to answer him. It took some time for the images to slow to a trickle; by then, she was on her back on the biobed, though she couldn’t remember laying down. She could feel the Doctor’s fingers on her temples, but he hadn’t entered her mind. She knew the feeling of him in her head and he wasn’t there. “M’fine,” she slurred, grabbing his wrists and weakly tugging at them to get him to let go.

“Rose, what just happened?” he demanded. “You just grabbed your head and collapsed. I thought something’ bad was happenin’, so I tried to go into your mind, but I couldn’t get in.” He looked guilty at the mention of going into her mind, as he knew she didn’t usually appreciate that, but it was quickly replaced by concern.

She shook her head, finally getting him to lower his hands down to her shoulders. “Just rememberin’ what happened last night,” she told him. “I can remember all of it, even when I was Bad Wolf. S’weird though,” she said thoughtfully, allowing him to help her sit up. “I can tell when it switched. All the emotions just sort of go all… flat, I guess. Didn’t really care about anythin’ beyond makin’ sure Time kept goin’ the right way. And keepin’ you safe. Guess that’s about the same thing, though.”

The Doctor quirked a smile, although he still looked concerned. “Well, she’s the Time Vortex in physical form,” he pointed out. “Not surprisin’ that preservin’ the timelines was all she was worried about.” He didn’t respond to the rest of her statement, not that it surprised her.

“Guess not,” she agreed. She was quiet for a moment, letting the Doctor check her over. “Doctor, about John…”

He held up a hand immediately. “Don’t apologize,” he said firmly. “You did what you needed to and kept him and me both safe, and that’s all that needs to be said right now.” His blue eyes begged her not to pursue this topic right now, even though they both knew they needed to talk about it.

She sighed, accepting the fact that they were now back to their usual one step forward, two steps back relationship, and was rewarded by the appreciation that she could see in his face. “How long’ve I been out?” she asked instead.

“Sixteen hours,” was the immediate answer. “Tim woke up a while ago. He’s with Jack right now.” His face fell. “It was just him and his dad, Rose. His mum’s dead and both his parents were orphans, so he doesn’t have anyone to go to. He’s all alone because I chose to run instead of face them.”

Rose didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t really say it wasn’t his fault, but she couldn’t say that it _was_ his fault either. She chewed on her lip, choosing to ignore the way he stared at it as some holdover of John. Finally, she said, “S’not your fault, Doctor, not entirely. Yeah, you chose to run, but it was to give them a chance. Wasn’t your fault they chose to come after you anyway. They’re the ones who did all those things. We just stopped ‘em from doin’ anythin’ more to anyone else. They had a Vortex manipulator, yeah? They would’ve just gone somewhere else, and who knows how many more people would have died if we hadn’t found them?”

He smiled at her softly. “And there’s Rose Tyler for you. Always tryin’ to make me better.”

“Damn straight I am,” she nodded. The movement made her head hurt again. She winced, trying to hide the motion from him.

He didn’t miss it. “What’s wrong?” he asked, hand twitching toward his sonic again.

“Nothin’,” she replied. At his sardonic look, she sighed and admitted, “My head still hurts, but it’s a different kind of pain. Almost like I’ve been studyin’ all day without a break or somethin’. Mental, not physical. Not burnin’,” she added, giving him a sharp glance as he sucked in a quick breath. “Just, sort of an ache. Tired.” She squeaked in surprise as his hands went up to her temples again and he gently brushed his fingers against them, asking for permission. She nodded slightly and gasped as he slipped into her mind.

She immediately knew something was different. Before, she knew he was there, but only as a faint sensation, a niggling feeling that something wasn’t quite right in her head. It didn’t matter that she’d let him do it, her mind still reacted as though he were some sort of intruder. Now, his mind was almost as tangible as his body, almost as though all she had to do was reach out with her mind and touch his own. Why was that?

_I think Bad Wolf made you a bit telepathic_. _More than a bit_ , he amended after a moment. _Almost as strong as me_. He sounded gobsmacked at the thought.

She was a bit gobsmacked too. “What?” she yelped.

She could feel him smile in her head, felt his contagious excitement, and wasn’t that odd, feeling someone else’s emotions like that? As though he’d heard her - he probably did, being inside her head and all - the feelings suddenly cut off. She felt bereft of something when she did it, and it was only now that she truly began to comprehend what it meant to be the last living survivor of a telepathic race. If that was how she felt after maybe ten seconds of contact, she couldn’t imagine how he’d survived the loss of his people.

His fingers fell away and her eyes opened (when had she shut them?). His face was utterly astonished, and he was looking at her with such a look of awe in his eyes that she blushed and squirmed in her seat. “Rose Tyler,” he said hoarsely, reaching out to cup her cheek. “What am I ever goin’ to do with you?”

‘Kiss me, I hope’ was her immediate thought. He snatched his hand back as though she’d burned him. His ears flamed. It took her a few seconds before she realized just what had happened. “Er, sorry,” she muttered, her own cheeks crimson.

“Not your fault,” he muttered back. “I’ll have to teach you how to shield properly when we’ve got the time.” Rose agreed with him wholeheartedly. She’d have to keep from touching him at all if she didn’t want to inundate him with everything she’d like to do to and with him. Would she even be limited by touch? Maybe it was a different kind of telepathy than the Doctor’s?

They stayed there for a moment, avoiding each other’s eyes and trying to think of something to say. After a few false starts, he finally said, “Well, we should probably get goin’. I wanted to try to help these people out. S’the least I can do, after leadin’ the Family here.”

And there was that guilt complex again. She sighed, but knew better than to try to talk him out of it. Better to wait a few days, get the situation behind them, and then try again. “Is there anythin’ I need to do before we go?” she asked instead. At his blank look, she clarified, “‘Bout the telepathy, or whatever. Do I need shields or somethin’? ‘Cause I don’t know how to do that.”

“We’ll work on it,” he assured her, bringing his fingers back up again. “For now I’ll just help you put up a temporary barrier, if that’s all right.” At her nod of assent, he fell back into her head, this time holding himself tightly in check. Rose did her best to think of absolutely nothing while he went about his work, coaching her on how to raise a shield. It was about what she’d expected - imagine a wall, the safest place you can think of, etc. - and she already had an idea in mind. When the image of the TARDIS’ library appeared, she could feel his pleased astonishment for a brief second before he withdrew. “Excellent safe place, that,” he praised her, a cocky smile stretching his lips.

“You think you’re so impressive,” she teased him.

He gave her a look of mock-indignation. “I am so impressive!” he retorted. They grinned at each other like idiots for a moment, then Rose hopped off the bed. She reached for his hand, or tried to. He pulled away at the last second, giving her an uneasy look.

She bit her lip, trying to shake the hurt away. Of course he was feeling completely lost as to what their relationship was after his stint as a human. She hadn't lied to John when she told him that she would be able to live with the shift back into their normal relationship (whatever that was), but it didn't mean it was easy. She didn’t think it would mean that she couldn’t hold his hand without automatic thoughts of romance coming to his head anymore, though.

His eyes, which had been dancing with amusement only a few seconds earlier, turned apologetic. He hesitated, then reached down and took her hand. He stroked the back of it once with his thumb. "We’ll talk," he promised quietly. “But not now.”

"Okay," she whispered, squeezing his hand so hard she knew it must have hurt. They really did need to wait until all this business here was taken care of. Hopefully neither of them would be fielding questions about their relationship while they helped clean up. That would be awkward. And she did want to find out if the people here did need their help, or if they even wanted it. At the very least, they could do something for the funerals for the Cartwrights and Robert Latimer. It was partly their fault that they had died in the first place.

He smiled and squeezed back before ushering her out of Medbay. He automatically turned toward the door leading to the console room, but she turned the other way. “I’m gonna get changed,” she explained at his questioning look, jerking her chin toward the corridor. She indicated her skirt, which hadn’t been changed from last night’s outfit. The shoes at least were easier to run in. It was fun playing dress up on their usual outings, but after nearly three months of wearing 1950s fashion, she was ready to get back into her own clothes.

He smirked at her in amusement, but nodded. “Meet me in the console room in ten minutes,” he ordered. She gave him a sarcastic salute and did an about-face, smiling as she heard his laughter following her.

As always after the events at the Game Station, the TARDIS helpfully brought her room door within a few feet of her. She moved quickly and grab the items she needed before moving into the bathroom. She threw her large shower-tub combination a longing look, but knew that if she lingered too long, the Doctor may well come in after her, and then where would they be? She made quick work of changing her clothes, glancing at the pile of makeup on the counter and deciding against it. She’d grown rather used to not wearing much. Besides, her clothes would probably cause more trouble than they were worth anyway - best not to show up as a painted lady or something. She tossed her former clothes into the hamper on her way out and left her room. She frowned as she heard yelling coming from the console room and picked up the pace, hurrying toward the source of the voices.

The Doctor stood quietly in front of the monitor on the console, hands in his pockets as he steadily watched the teenager shouting at him. Tim stood next to the jumpseat, his face red and tear-streaked. When he saw Rose, a conflicted look passed over his face before it settled on anger. He opened his mouth again, but the Doctor cut him off.

“Yell at me all you want, Tim, but don’t you dare bring her into this,” he said lowly. “She kept you safe, an’ that’s what your dad would’ve wanted. It was my fault Robert died, and I’m sorry for that. I know that doesn’t make it better, but I am. He was a good man.”

‘Oh,’ Rose thought. She hadn’t thought about Tim or Jack since she woke up, other than that rush of memories from before and when the Doctor had mentioned Tim’s predicament. She opened her mouth, but shut it at the Doctor’s sharp look as Tim began to go off on him again.

Movement behind her caused her to whirl around in shock. Jack grinned at her before taking in the scene in front of him. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Tim’s blamin’ us for his dad dyin’,” she explained quietly. “An’ he’s right, sort of. We led them here.”

“It’s no one’s fault but that crazy Family’s,” Jack growled. She looked at him in surprise. She wouldn’t have expected him to defend the Doctor after being abandoned by him. He rolled his eyes at her in exasperation. “Just because I’m mad at him doesn’t mean I can’t see facts,” he told her. “Sure, he went into hiding, but they’re the ones who followed you guys here.”

Rose said nothing, looking back at the pair in front of her. They were closer now, Tim’s face less red but just as anguished as the Doctor spoke quietly to him. Maybe she was becoming like the Doctor, she thought, blaming things on herself now. It didn’t matter what Jack said - it was partially their fault. There was some slight comfort (if it could even be called that) in the fact that no matter where they’d gone this would probably have happened anyway, but the fact remained that at least five people were dead due to her and the Doctor’s actions. There might even be more that no one knew about yet. Son of Mine was completely mental, after all.

“Rose?” Jack prodded, voice concerned. She blinked and refocused on the here and now, seeing that Tim was gone. Judging by the open door, he’d done a runner. The Doctor still stood there, his face closed off in the way that she knew meant he was brooding.

She squared her shoulders and put her melancholy thoughts to the side, crossing the grating to come and take the Doctor’s hand. “Let’s go see what all we can help with, yeah?” she asked softly, leaning her head on his shoulder as she looked up at him. He gave her a weak smile and nodded, so she pulled lightly on his hand and guided him to the doors to the outside world, where Calvey Creek and all its problems waited for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I fudged canon a bit with the memory things, but it's not like I haven't blown it out of the water already, right? XD Also, this is kind of a monster chapter compared to most of the others, so... yay?
> 
> Three more chapters to go!


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, Rose, and Jack help in the aftermath of the Family's attack.
> 
> They all go back to 2000s London to face the wrath of Jackie Tyler.

### 

They later found out that there had been a sixth victim. Jeremy Baines was found in a copse of trees not far from the Cartwrights' house. He hadn't been disintegrated like Robert was, so they could only presume that whoever had done it had a different kind of weapon. They suspected Son of Mine. He’d been different from the other three - he’d probably liked seeing the evidence of his destruction rather than just a pile of ashes that could just be a strange sort of dirt to anyone else.

The residents of Calvey Creek treated them with a sort of wary respect now. They weren’t John Smith, resident mechanic, and Miss Rose, endearing troublemaker, anymore. Now they were the Doctor and Rose Tyler, people from another world that had brought havoc down upon their little town. They’d taken care of it as soon as they could, of course, but that didn’t negate the fact that six people from the tightly-knit community were now dead.

The Doctor helped in the garage for a few days while someone was picked to take over. It wouldn’t be too hard to step into the manager’s position - Robert had been very organized and everything in the office was easy to understand and take over. It ended up being one of the long-term mechanics who’d worked there for several decades. He was really too old to be working on cars full-time anymore, and it was unanimously decided that he take over the position.

Rose helped with anything she could, which wasn’t much. Most of the townsfolk had seen the way she took on the Cartwrights in the square. They’d seen her eyes change color and heard the power in her voice, and weren’t quite sure what to make of it. So while they didn’t exactly avoid her, they didn’t go out of their way to talk to her either. She ended up spending most of her time at the park, doing her best to help with the cleanup and repairs there. Great gouges had been made in the dirt where the stage used to be before it had been blown up, and she bullied her way into the group trying to get it all leveled out. She earned some respect after the men saw how she worked quickly and without true complaint, though the phrases falling from her lips had some of them gaping at her in shock. She was proven right in her earlier thoughts from the other day - she had a fouler mouth than the rest of them combined, other than Jack. (She was certain that some of the younger high school boys were carefully paying attention and memorizing what she said.)

Jack, who was still considered an outsider, actually had the easiest time of the three of them. Somehow he was able to work his way into helping anyone who really needed it, probably because he had a feeling about him that he’d been through this before. He was the one who flitted around, going where he was needed. He helped put the funerals together for all six casualties, using money he found one morning on the TARDIS jumpseat. (He never knew for sure where it had come from, but gave the TARDIS a grateful pat on his way out.) He helped clean out the Cartwright’s home, as well as the Latimer’s, and comforted the families and friends of the deceased with a well-practiced air. The Doctor and Rose wondered just how often he’d had to do this over the course of his long life, but didn’t ask him.

Tim wandered around town like a ghost. The Doctor was right - he was all alone now, and he had no place to go save back to his old apartment, a place almost completely empty at this point, or a room the TARDIS had prepared especially for him. As he was only thirteen, he didn’t know how to do much more than make a sandwich, and though Mrs. Brown was more than willing to give him a meal every night for no charge, he felt guilty not paying for it. Thus, he ended up back on the TARDIS for dinner more often than not. He was quiet and non-communicative at first, but he gradually began to open up. He still didn’t speak much to the Doctor - it was obvious that he still blamed him - but at least he wasn’t shouting anymore. Jack and Rose were optimistic that he would eventually be able to move past these events and be able to interact with the Doctor a bit more normally. After all, he was going to live on board the TARDIS once they had finished with what the Doctor and Rose saw as their atonement to the people living there.

Rose had cornered Tim one night when the TARDIS alerted her to his nighttime prowling of the corridors. She could have kicked herself for not realizing that he was having nightmares; after all, he’d seen his father murdered in front of him by an alien possessing the forms of one of his peers. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and steered him toward the galley, where she made her mother’s famous tea and sat with him at the table.

While they sat there, she spoke about her father, and how the Doctor had taken her to see him so she could be with him when he died. She told him how she’d gone against the Laws of Time and saved him, and what happened because of it. She admitted how her actions had caused the deaths of untold numbers of people. The Doctor sacrificed himself for all the others in that cathedral, and then her father ran in front of the car that was meant to hit him to put the timeline to rights. Though it was always meant to happen, she explained, she still felt as though she’d killed him. They didn’t talk about how it wasn’t really the same because, in the end, they’d both seen their fathers die.

It was then that she’d extended the offer to travel with them, though she hadn’t talked to the Doctor about it. She was sure he would agree with her. Tim said yes, and added that he’d already known that he would travel with them after seeing that vision the day before everything went to hell. Now he knew the reason why he’d seen himself living in the TARDIS.

When the Doctor had come in the next morning, he found the two of them slumped against the wall. Her arms were around him, his head on her shoulder, tear tracks on both their faces. He caught his breath at the sight, his heart tightening as he saw a glimpse of a possible timeline not too far in their futures. He shoved the thought away and gently shook her awake before picking Tim up and taking him to his room. That night, he couldn’t get the image of Rose holding a child to her breast, one with dark hair and golden eyes, out of his mind. He wrestled with his feelings throughout the day and into the night, John’s voice taunting him for most of it.

***

The funerals were all held on the same day. First the Cartwrights, then Jeremy Baines, and finally Robert Latimer. The Doctor didn’t understand why they weren’t all at the same time - it would have saved some time, and surely everyone just wanted this to be over with, right? - but as it wasn’t his decision, he kept his mouth shut. The four of them stood in the back, escaping once the eulogy was over, except for Robert’s funeral, of course. Rose sat at the front with Tim, grasping his hand as the teenager stared ahead stonily.

It was a new experience for the Doctor. Oh, he’d attended funerals before, mostly those for his own people. A companion or two, when they died while they traveled with him and he could, or rather would, stay. But very rarely did he stay after an event as serious as this one, when people he didn’t really know died before he could resolve the problem. Even then, he was fixing things or helping people negotiate, not going to funerals. In this case, however, he thought it only right to pay his respects to the deceased. No matter what Jack said, this was his fault, at least partially.

He was surprised that Rose didn’t try to tell him it wasn’t his fault. She’d even admitted that he was partially to blame. But then, he could sense the same sort of guilt in her. From John’s memories, he remembered that the Family had been able to track her even though she was human. Son of Mine had mentioned smelling the Vortex in her scent. He doubted they’d tracked her scent to Calvey Creek - they’d been able to follow them through the Vortex, after all - but she’d only begun wearing the biodamper the night she disappeared and Jack brought her back. The Family had plenty of time to track her down and compare her scent before and after.

He knew from personal experience that nothing he said would alleviate the guilt Rose felt, though he didn’t know if she’d appreciate him trying to do so. The TARDIS hadn’t informed him of any nightmares on her part yet, something he’d asked Her to monitor after the Dalek in Utah. It was something he would have expected, again due to personal experience. Then again, she’d been working herself to exhaustion every night, save that one night she’d encountered Tim wandering the TARDIS.

(He still wasn’t sure how to feel about a young teenager traveling with them, even if he’d agreed instantly. The last was Adric, and he had been fifteen, a terrible age when factoring in his genius IQ and a constant need to prove himself.

But Tim was a quiet sort and didn’t tend to bite off more than he could chew, unlike Adric. That slight clairvoyance could come in handy too, he had to admit. Not that he would rely on it or anything, thanks to his own Time sense, but one never knew…)

“Doctor?”

He blinked, looking down. Rose had a hand on his arm, looking concerned. He forced a smile for her. “Yeah?”

“The funeral’s over,” she informed him. Her hand traveled to his and gripped it. “Just the burial left now.” She tugged him over to the door, where everyone else had already filed through to walk the short distance to the town’s graveyard. He could just see the coffin at the front of the line being held by the pallbearers, consisting mostly of mechanics from the shop. He wondered again why all the funerals couldn’t be held at one time.

Rose laughed slightly. “They’ll probably do some sort of remembrance ceremony for all of them later,” she said. “But now’s for remembering each person on their own.” He flushed, realizing that he’d let his mental barriers slip again. “Sorry,” she added, sensing his discomfort. Whether it was through their touch or she just knew him that well, he wasn’t sure. “Just sort of picked it up.” He smiled briefly and squeezed her hand, assuring her that he wasn’t upset. It was his fault, letting his barriers down around a new telepath. She was protected from casual telepathy, but that was all. Once they left, he really needed to start some lessons with her.

This would be the last day they’d be here. He’d already fixed up Jack’s Vortex manipulator, and the man was planning on leaving as soon as the funeral was over and they’d picked up a new phone for him. He’d already said his long goodbyes to Rose and Tim. The Doctor had gotten a handshake and a warning to keep Rose out of trouble. They’d both snorted at the words, unable to keep a straight face at knowing that Rose would find trouble no matter what. Rose acted offended, but her lips kept quirking up into a grin.

They reached the graveyard just behind the last stragglers. The minister said a few final words, then the casket was lowered into the ground carefully. Rose squeezed his hand and slipped away toward the front to stand next to Tim, placing an arm around his shoulder. Though tears ran down his face, he was quiet. He tossed the symbolic handful of dirt into the hole before him before turning in Rose’s embrace and burying his head in her shoulder. They didn’t move from their spot even as the rest of the townsfolk filed past them, tossing their own handful of dirt onto the coffin. A few patted Tim’s back or shoulder, but most left him to his grief. Surely they wondered why he would seek comfort from one of the people who caused his father’s death in the first place (as far as they were concerned), but no one said anything beyond condolences.

The Doctor waited until everyone else had left before approaching the pair. He slid his own arm around Rose’s waist before gingerly resting his hand on Tim’s shoulder. Rose looked up at him, a sad smile quirking one side of her mouth. He copied her expression, then leaned down and kissed her forehead gently. Her eyes fluttered shut. “C’mon,” he murmured, squeezing Tim’s shoulder slightly. “Back to the TARDIS.”

***

When they got to the TARDIS, Tim went straight to his room. Rose watched him go sadly, but didn’t try to stop him. She turned toward her boys, who stood next to each other somewhat awkwardly now that they weren’t required to hide their strained relationship from the town. She smiled slightly. “Well, where to next?” she asked.

The two men looked at each other. “I still need that phone,” Jack pointed out.

“Could get one from Rose’s time,” the Doctor mused aloud. He looked over at her. “That all right with you?”

“‘Course it is!” she nearly shouted, flushing at the amused look on the Doctor’s face. She hadn’t seen her mum in three months, a gap in time much larger (for her) than had ever gone by before, and she had so much to tell her about. Of course, the relationship between John and herself wasn’t going to be mentioned. Her mum would only pounce on the Doctor after hearing the story and probably drive him even further away.

“All right then,” the Doctor said, thankfully not teasing her. “Next stop, Powell Estates.” He began the dematerialization sequence. Rose moved automatically to help him, flipping switches and turning knobs she had no idea what they did before she realized it. She felt the disconcerted stare of the Doctor and the awed one from Jack and flushed again, stepping back from the console.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

The Doctor gave her a considering look. Then he shook his head, smiling slightly. “Just remember I’m still in charge around here,” he ordered, pointing at her. “No pilotin’ the TARDIS without me.”

Rose gaped at him for a moment, absolute shock coursing through her. “Really?” she squeaked.

He rolled his eyes at her. “Yes, really,” he mocked. “Now keep goin’. S’not comfortable for the TARDIS to be halfway through the process, you know.” She nodded quickly and stepped back, marveling at how her body just knew what to do. She and the Doctor… well, “worked in harmony” might not have been the right phrase, as they ran into each other a few times, but they got the job done. Soon they were settling down in their usual place at the Estates, with a thump slightly gentler than usual. “Two pilots,” the Doctor explained as Tim came into the console room, clearly wondering what was going on. “Supposed to have six altogether. The more pilots, the easier the landin’.”

“Well, that explains a lot,” Jack snarked. The Doctor tossed him an annoyed look.

Rose broke in before it could become an all-out snark-off. “Tim, we’re back at my mum’s flat. Er, apartment,” she explained at the teenager’s confused look. “Do you want to go see it?”

Curiosity was beginning to show on his face. It was the first emotion other than anger or sadness that she’d seen since she’d woken up in the medbay, and she was happy to see him beginning to come back out of his shell. “Okay,” he agreed.

“How long’s it been?” she asked, turning back to the other two men.

The Doctor looked guiltily at her. “Three months,” he admitted. “Couldn’t do anythin’ about it.”

She flinched at the thought. Three months? And she hadn’t been able to contact her mum during that time thanks to the TARDIS being unable to route her calls while stuck on emergency power. She considered how worried her mum would have been and how that might translate into anger. “Actually, Tim, maybe you should stay here for a little bit and let me talk to her first,” she amended, biting her lip. She looked back at the Doctor, who had evidently been thinking along the same lines as her if his slightly paler face was any indication. His hand twitched up toward his face like he wanted to rub his cheek. He cleared his throat.

“Probably a good idea,” he agreed. “Rose, you talk to your mum. But stay in the TARDIS - those shields won’t do much with seven million minds knockin’ on them. While you’re doin’ that, Jack and I’ll introduce Tim here to the 21st century.”

“Coward,” Jack muttered, not bothering to hide a grin. The Doctor glared at him, but didn’t refute his words.

Rose rolled her eyes at them before turning to the doors. She took a deep breath, only to let it out in a slightly hysterical laugh as Jack began to hum a morbid tune. “Shut up,” she snapped at him, grinning despite herself. He raised his hands in mock innocence, but did as she said. She squared her shoulders. “It’s only my mum. What’s the worst that could happen?” Opening the doors, she was met with the view of Jackie Tyler racing toward the TARDIS. The look on her mother’s face was not comforting.

Bugger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, disclaimer on this one: I'm pretty sure I wrote this on November 30th, about three hours before NaNo was over. So if it's not so great, yeah, I pounded it out really quick so I could win and reach 50k words.
> 
> (Yes, there's not 50k in the story yet, but I'm the kind of writer that likes to write whatever scenes come to my head. Often I'll have the ending pretty much written out already and yet the bulk of the story is still some nebulous concept in my head, lol.)


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose talks to Jackie.
> 
> Jackie talks to the Doctor.
> 
> The Doctor talks to the TARDIS.

Whenever Jackie Tyler was upset, she made tea. It was a universal constant, quite possibly a multiversal constant. The act of it didn’t soothe her, precisely, but she was able to slam cabinet doors shut and bang mugs on a tray and generally make a loud ruckus to help get some of her more… volatile emotions under control.

Unfortunately, she was in the soddin’ blue box that her daughter traveled through time and space in, as that bleeding alien insisted that Rose couldn’t go outside right now, something about shields and wet tissue paper. Thus, there was no opportunity for making any tea herself. She couldn’t just go slamming cabinet doors in a place she didn’t live, after all - she had manners, unlike a certain alien she knew.

But when Rose opened a door (and really, what were all these circles and lines and a rose about, all gilded in what was almost surely real gold - getting airs and graces, her daughter was!), Jackie was unsettled to see two cups of tea steaming on the nightstand. She had the uncomfortable feeling that the blue box had somehow made the tea and avoided the beverage, sitting at the foot of the bed instead.

Rose didn’t give any indication that she thought this strange. In fact, she looked up at the ceiling and _thanked_ it before walking over and draining the first cup in one go and picking up the second. She sighed, looking into the tea, obviously deciding where to start.

Jackie kept a tight rein on her temper for once, seeing Rose so conflicted. Oh, she was no fool, no matter what the Doctor thought of her. She could tell by how Rose was acting that their latest adventure hadn’t gone well, something that made her feel that much more upset about not hearing from her for the past three months. And, of course, it made her even more angry with the Doctor, putting her baby in the kind of danger that had put that old look back in Rose’s eyes. She had a similar look after they’d gotten back from that Dalek mess in the future, but this was different. Whatever had happened this time was personal on a completely different level than everything that had happened then. Lifting an arm, she urged Rose to sit beside her. Her daughter curled into her side at once and haltingly began her story.

She spoke about running from some life-sucking aliens, the Doctor becoming human, and the process he’d had to go through to do it. She faltered in the telling, her eyes filling with tears. (“He didn’t make a sound, Mum,” she said, wiping furiously at her eyes. “I still have nightmares about it. He was in so much pain and I couldn’t _do_ anythin’!”) Jackie didn’t say anything, merely hugged her daughter tighter and handed her a handkerchief, ignoring the fact that it had appeared out of nowhere.

She watched as Rose gradually grew more animated, talking about landing in 1954 Missouri (a state in the US?) of all places, where the Doctor became just another mechanic named John Smith. (That sounded like him, all right; he had the look of one even when he was his normal, Time Lord self.) She couldn’t help but gape when Rose told her that she was stationed at the finishing school in town, however. Her Rose, at a finishing school?

(Rose’s smile was really more of a smirk when she explained this. “You’d be proud of me, Mum,” she teased. “I was able to stay there almost the whole time before I got kicked out.” Jackie just rolled her eyes affectionately.)

Rose continued her story, but it was obvious that she wasn’t telling all of it. Jackie knew her daughter and knew her tells. The fidgeting, the inability to meet her eyes for more than a few seconds, the quick speech all pointed to something being left out, something big. It was apparently even bigger than her becoming Bad Wolf or whatever the name was, and that was a big deal if the Doctor’s reaction to it the first time was anything to go by. Finally, she put an end to it. “Rose, what’re you not tellin’ me?” she demanded.

Her daughter blushed bright red. “Nothin’ important,” she deflected.

“Rose Marion Tyler, don’t you lie to me!” Jackie snapped, her eyes narrowing. “You think I don’t know what you look like when you’re not tellin’ me everythin’? I’ve only raised you an’ all!” Rose looked down at her hands and didn’t say anything, but Jackie saw the trembling lip.

She tried another tactic. “Sweetheart, what happened?” she asked gently. “Somethin’ happened that’s made you upset. What is it?”

To Rose’s credit, she didn’t respond with a smart arse comment like Jackie had half-expected. She bit her lip. “Don’t be mad at the Doctor,” she pleaded. “He didn’t know what would happen.” When Jackie just raise an eyebrow at her, her face grew mulish. “I'm serious, Mum. It's not his fault.”

“All right, all right,” Jackie acquiesced. Privately, she thought it would depend on just what it was that had happened. If that stupid alien had hit Rose, he’d never hear the end of it. Rose had gotten plenty of that in her life already and she didn’t need another man swooping in and doing the same things Jimmy had.

Rose eyed her skeptically, perhaps sensing that she wasn't being entirely truthful, but left it alone. Instead, she took a deep breath and said, quite fast, “Me’n’John were together.”

Jackie blinked.

_Poor Rose._

And then on the heels of that thought came a surprising one: _Poor Doctor._

She'd seen what was brewing between the two of them months ago, heard it in the Doctor’s voice in Downing Street, noticed it in the way they clung to each other after that problem in Cardiff. It'd been cemented for her when the Doctor sent Rose back from the Game Station, and when Rose ignored that and tore apart the blue box to get back to him. Her devotion to getting him better once they returned was just as telling as the way he never took his eyes off her for more than a moment after they dealt with the Sycorax. But as far as she was aware, nothing had ever happened between them, and Rose would have let her know if - when- it ever did.

Rose took her silence for silent condemnation instead of the shock it was and rushed to explain. “He didn't know me for the first two months. We met when I went to pick up the car from the shop he worked in and he ended up driving me home because I forgot that I didn't know how to drive a car like that. He came by a few days later to make sure I hadn't gotten in trouble and he asked me to go walkin’ with him. I didn't know what to do - I was supposed to be keeping an eye on him and I didn't know if sayin’ no would make him do something stupid and make me have to open the watch early.”

Jackie shook herself out of her daze. “Oh, sweetheart, I'm not mad at you, or him,” she assured her daughter, tightening her arm around her shoulders. “Are you all right?”

The look that crossed Rose’s face broke her heart. “No,” she admitted frankly. Her bottom lip trembled, and Jackie was taken back to three years ago, right after Jimmy Stone left the picture. “I told John before he changed back that I could go back to how we were before. And I can. I know I can. But it's hard.” Her voice broke on the last word. “Sometimes I act with the Doctor like I did with John and it makes everything awkward. He disappears and then I feel terrible. I don't know what to do.” Whatever strength she had left crumbled. She turned fully into her mother and cried.

Above her head, Jackie’s mouth firmed. As soon as the Doctor came back, she was going to corner him, and God help him if he tried to brush her off.

***

The Doctor was working underneath the console when he heard footsteps on the grating. “Doctor,” Jackie said, “we need to talk.”

The Time Lord cringed. It was late when the three of them got back to the TARDIS. Getting Jack a new superphone was easy, but Tim was enamored with everything he saw, and it was far later than they realized when the boy finally began wavering on his feet. He’d never even been outside of Calvey Creek, so being in a city this size was a huge eye-opener for him. The world had greatly changed in fifty years as well, from technology to fashion to music to societal constraints. (The poor boy’s face was almost permanently red after the number of women wearing skimpy clothes he’d seen. Jack just laughed and promised to take him to Erotica V some time, completely ignoring the Doctor’s glare.)

Rose wasn’t waiting in the console room for them when they let themselves in. Assuming she was asleep, Tim went straight to his own room, and though Jack ducked under the console and helped with repairs, he eventually went to bed himself. He wanted to give Rose a proper goodbye instead of just disappearing. (And if he gave the Doctor a stink eye when he said that, well. He deserved it.) Thinking himself alone, the Doctor decided to work on some repairs that needed to be done after the hopscotch through time and space.

He grunted in response to Jackie’s proclamation but otherwise didn’t react. Usually, if he just ignored her, she’d give up and leave in a huff, muttering about rude aliens. It was a complete surprise, therefore, when the next time he looked up from his work he saw her face hovering right near his, eyes narrowed and a firm set to her mouth. He hadn’t even heard her climb down next to him!

“Doctor, I’m not joking,” she said seriously. Her face looked like Rose’s when she got something stuck in her head.

The Doctor sighed heavily and looked at her, kissing his repair time goodbye. “What is it, Jackie?” he grumbled.

Her eyes narrowed even further and she scowled at him. “You know bloody well what,” she snapped. “Rose told me everythin’ that happened.”

Of course she did. And now here came Jackie Tyler to defend her daughter’s honor, no matter that Rose could do it herself quite easily.

“Then why do we need to talk about it?” he asked petulantly. “It happened, it’s over, and now we don’t have to talk about it ever again.” He wasn’t expecting the whack on the head, and he especially wasn’t expecting her to grab his ear and pull him out from under the console. “Oi, what d’you think you’re doin’, you-”

“Is my Rose not good enough for you?” she demanded, letting go of his ear, which was now bright red with the abuse. “She loves you, you bloody alien, and I know you love her too. So why the bloody hell are you not stayin’ together?”

“It’s not that simple,” the Doctor grated. He should have known she would stick her nose into his business. Surprising that she wasn’t demanding he stay away, though. She hated him for taking Rose away. Didn’t she?

Jackie spluttered for a moment before taking a deep breath, either to calm herself down or yell at him. He knew which one he was betting on, but she surprised him again when she said, in a forcibly calm sort of way, “Why isn’t it that simple? Love’s an amazin’ thing, and it can get you through all sorts of problems if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Jackie, I’m over 900 years old,” he explained tiredly, “and I can easily live that long again if I’m careful. I still have two more regenerations left. Rose is young now, but I’ll lose her someday. We’ll have eighty years, if we’re lucky, and then I’ll be alone again.”

The woman studied him, head cocked to the side, looking so very much like her daughter that his heart ached. Then she slapped him upside the head again.

“You’re an idiot,” she announced as he glared at her. “A selfish one at that.”

“And you’re an interferin’ harpy,” he shot back. “Keep your nose out of it.”

She ignored him. _That_ at least was normal, even if nothing else in this conversation was. “Maybe I ain’t as old as you are,” she informed him, ignoring the rude noise he made, “but it’s been almost 20 years since Pete died, you know. There’ve been other blokes, yeah, but Pete was the love of my life. There ain’t a day goes by I don’t miss him. Sometimes it hurts so bad I can’t breathe. But if you think I regret bein’ with him, you’d be wrong. There’s times I wish he was here more’n others, yeah, but I got a lot of good memories of us, an’ those are what I think about when the loneliness gets to be too much.” She patted his arm awkwardly. “Jus’ think about that, yeah?” Giving him a firm nod, she turned and marched out of the TARDIS, leaving him to gape at her back.

Who the hell was that and what did they do with Jackie Tyler? Jackie Tyler was not the understanding type, not when it came to him. And yet she just gave him one of the most absurd pep talks he’d had occasion to hear. Sure, maybe she knew what she was talking about. But she suffered the death of her husband merely a year or so after they’d gotten married - they barely had a chance to get started before everything was gone. Surely the sorrow of that couldn’t compare to losing Rose after a human lifetime together, or even worse, during an adventure gone wrong. Right?

_“Sometimes the best way to keep someone you love safe is to let them decide what they want to do. If she’s chosen you, don’t fight it. Embrace it. It’s worth the pain, even if they leave you.”_

Jack’s words echoed in his head. The Doctor wondered how many people the man had loved and lost over the past eighty years to put that melancholy and pain in his voice. He’d never seemed like the kind to sustain a romantic relationship, considering how often he asked to visit pleasure planets and the like, but maybe something changed. The knowledge that he was stuck on Earth for the foreseeable future, or the shock of not aging or staying dead. Whatever it was, it was obvious he’d lost several close friends and lovers. He knew the pain it caused and yet he was still advocating for John (and the Time Lord locked within) to stay with Rose.

The Doctor just didn’t understand how it could be worth it. Jackie said it was. Jack said it was. Even the leftover John in his head said it was, and his human memories felt that way about his “wife” Charley (with whom he’d never had more than a fling with, _really TARDIS you minx_ ). Was it a human thing? Humans, with their mayfly lives, grasped onto whatever made them happy and held onto it with all their might, no matter how effervescent the thing in question might be. They might as well have that trite quote about “better to have loved and lost” tattooed on their foreheads.

But maybe it wasn’t so trite. Regret was one of the worst feelings in the world. He would know - he’d spent his whole life regretting one thing or another, from not spending enough time with his children all the way up to leaving Jack on that satellite ankle deep in Dalek dust. But would he give up the time he had with all those people just so he wouldn’t feel so badly about himself and his actions? Of course he wouldn’t. All of them were special and impacted his life, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad, but they all helped to shape him into the man he was today.

But though all of the people he met were special, Rose was even better. She was his ballast after the war, and it scared him to think of what he could become if she wasn’t there anymore, by her own choice or not. He’d changed for the better in just a year of traveling with her. He was no longer prone to near-suicidal actions and thoughts. He took better care of himself. He was happy more often than not, and when he did descend into melancholy she was always there to help him out of it again. Thoughts of the Time War were starting to become few and far between, nightmares aside, and he didn’t tear himself to shreds when he did think about it.

All of that in just one year.

What would he be like after a lifetime with her?

He closed his eyes and felt for his link to the TARDIS. Usually he wouldn’t ask something like this of Her, but he needed the reassurance of his oldest friend and confidant. The TARDIS reached back almost desperately, startling him, as She nudged him toward one particular timeline. Whatever was in this one was important, important enough that She wasn’t bothering with her usual runaround antics.

_An alternate universe, with a father who was alive, a mother who died, and a friend who stayed behind._

_A hole punched through the void, Cybermen and Daleks fighting each other._

_Rose being sucked into the void, surviving only by the grace of her father’s alternate._

_A white wall._

_“I’m burnin’ up a sun just to say goodbye.”_

_Rose on a beach, crying._

_“I love you.”_

_“Rose Tyler-”_

_Tears on his face as he rages at the universe._

_Dying with the Racnoss Queen and her brood._

_Choosing not to regenerate._

_The Universe going to Hell in a handbasket._

He surfaced out of the vision, gasping. The absolute devastation of losing Rose was still running through his veins. He was shaking, and he distantly recognized he was in shock.

It took him several moments to find his voice. “What the hell was that?” he asked harshly. “If that was your idea of helpin’, it was fucked up!”

There was the equivalent of a harsh slap across the head, leaving him reeling. Then She spoke to him directly, and he forgot about the pain instantly. ‘She goes through the Void two more times than you do, because you’re a self-sacrificing idiot, which is why she loses her grip,’ She told him tartly.

The Doctor was stunned into silence. He could count the number of times the TARDIS had spoken to him like this on one hand. It was simply too difficult for Her to pull all of her awareness to one time and location for more than a few minutes, the impressions she would send notwithstanding, and it was something She did only in dire circumstances. The last time She had done it was right before Gallifrey was destroyed, and before that, his seventh regeneration when Ace had left.

It scared him that his relationship with Rose was considered dire circumstances.

She sighed. ‘It is dire circumstances,’ She agrees. ‘Rose Tyler is special. I will not allow you to sabotage your relationship with her because of your self-esteem issues.’

...ouch. She certainly didn’t pull punches.

‘Why would I?’ She sounded cross now. ‘I’ve known you nearly your entire life. Who else will call you out when you need it?’

Rose did. Rose did it all the time, actually. The Dalek in Utah came to mind.

Smugness.

“Oh, shut it,” he grumbled.

‘She makes you better, My Doctor. You know that.’

He did.

‘Then why do you continue to fight it? Aren’t you tired, My Doctor?’

He was. He was so tired. Wasn’t that what he was thinking before he turned himself human? He was tired of fighting, tired of being the one with all the answers, tired of being the strong one all the time. Wasn’t he allowed to crumble once in a while, to let someone else take up the burden?

‘Of course you are. And Rose has proven herself time and again. She can be the one to hold you when you need it, to save you when you can’t keep yourself from drowning. She would be there forever, if you would let her.’

He knew that. He did. He just had a hard time believing it.

‘This is why you asked for My help, isn’t it? I am your oldest companion, your dearest friend. I can’t lie to you, and wouldn’t want to anyway. So I will tell you: Rose Tyler loves you. She saved you from yourself in Utah. She looked into My heart despite knowing that it could kill her. She kept your human self safe for nearly three months and became Bad Wolf again to save you. She won’t leave unless you make her.

‘With all that in mind, why wouldn’t you take all she has to give you and give all of yourself in return? Regrets are worth nothing, less than nothing, and regrets are all you’ll have if you choose not to take this chance.’

Well, when it was put like that…

“I’ve really been an idiot, haven’t I?” he wondered out loud, and winced when the TARDIS took the opportunity to shock him with a conveniently placed wire.

‘You have,’ She agreed cheerfully. ‘That’s why you have me. If I have to pull my consciousness together to knock some sense into you again, I will be very upset. And I’ll make sure bananas never come about.’

He wouldn’t put it past Her. Even he didn’t know all the TARDIS’ capabilities, and this was _not_ something he was willing to test. He didn’t want Her to come back and knock sense into his head either, no matter how much he enjoyed speaking to Her like this.

‘Good.’ She radiated contentment and satisfaction now, and he fought not to roll his eyes. Still…

“Thank you,” he said, slightly begrudgingly. Getting relationship advice from a sentient time machine, how pitiful was that? He winced at the mental poke, but didn’t take it back.

‘You’re welcome,’ She replied loftily. ‘Now, go put that poor girl out of her misery. I’ll know if you don’t. We’re connected in more ways than you realize.’

And with that unsettling parting shot, Her presence faded back into the muted bond they usually shared.

The Doctor sat there for a long time, staring sightlessly at the far wall, mulling over the TARDIS’ words. He’d needed to hear them from her, he realized. A common failing of the old, he’d found, was that they tended to think anyone younger than them was a young whippersnapper who didn’t know anything. Oh, he’d heard Jack’s words, but he dismissed them as the ranting of a young man who didn’t know any better. He’d forgotten that for a human, Jack was old. Very old. He knew what he was talking about, but because of that prejudice, he’d ignored the advice.

That was why he needed the TARDIS to kick him in the arse and set him straight. She was much older than him, and he respected Her and Her words, even if he played at ignoring Her most of the time. He knew who wore the pants in their relationship.

To hear Her affirmation and pretty much get Her blessing was what he needed. (He also needed the harsh words, but he was ignoring that for the moment.) It gave him the confidence to pursue this… whatever it was with Rose, rather than let it linger in limbo until death or old age forced them to part ways. His mind was already sorting out plans, probably had been since the moment the TARDIS insulted him.

Yes, he really owed the Old Girl for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys. Jackie Tyler is so much fun to write. Even more so when you're trying to make her less of a one-dimensional figure that's just slap-happy.
> 
> Also, this is my headcanon for the TARDIS, which I feel is at least slightly supported by the episode "The Doctor's Wife." (If you haven't watched it, watch it. It's got all teh feels.)
> 
> One more chapter to go!


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose is suspicious.
> 
> The Doctor takes the plunge.

Rose was suspicious.

The reason? The Doctor was acting weird. Weirder than normal.

They were alone on the TARDIS. Tim and Jack had agreed to stay with her mum for a few hours longer while Rose and the Doctor took a few weeks to learn about and train Rose’s new mental abilities. After the events of the last few months, she’d expected him to disappear for hours on end, only returning to eat, work on her telepathy for an hour or two, and sleep. No more hanging out until they’d gotten their emotions stuffed back into the boxes they used to be in.

But no. The Doctor was acting weird. Doing weird things.

Like leaving gifts on her bedside table. He didn’t buy her stuff; he provided the money and she did the buying. But these were things she recognized, things from the fun fair at Calvey Creek. Things John must have bought when she wasn’t looking. She’d feel more upset about it if it wasn’t for the fact that the Doctor looked so pleased when she thanked him. And he willingly talked about buying them for her (well, John buying them for her) when he didn’t like to talk about anything that had happened in Missouri.

Or like when he worked on the TARDIS. Usually he was pretty quiet, not counting the occasional swear when he dropped something or burnt himself. It was a comfortable silence, but it was still silence all the same. And sometimes it took her threatening to throw out all the bananas for him to finally come up for air.

But now? He was humming. _Humming_. Some songs she’d never heard before, but she could have sworn she heard “The Fountain in the Park” wafting through the grating a few days ago.

And he didn’t work through mealtimes now. He would come and eat with her for lunch and dinner. And after dinner he wouldn’t go back at all, staying in the library with her instead. They’d read books together, or work on her telepathy.

And the telepathy lessons! He was completely different there too! After discovering she was telepathic, but before they went back to London, he was impersonal, almost cold. She didn’t know if it was because her mind was spilling out into everything around them or what. Every time he helped her check her shields, he was brisk and efficient, staying just long enough to help her shore up her defenses while keeping his own mind entirely closed off.

Now it was as personal as it could get. They bantered in their minds just as easily as they did out loud, with the added benefit of _feeling_ the other’s amusement and mock-irritation. Though his memories were locked away (as were hers now that she’d learned how), he didn’t bother to shield how he felt or what he thought every single time they touched, which was a lot now that they were venturing back into public. He wanted to be available should her walls suddenly fall and her mind become inundated with all the thoughts of the minds around her.

(She was proud to say that she hadn’t needed him at all during the last stop at that amazing market on the asteroid, even after the excitement of finding the words “Bad Wolf.” They promptly bought the card, scrawled a note, and sent it off to the Jack of 1954 via TARDIS.)

After all the time mentally stuck together, emotions flowing like water between them, she felt like she’d learned more about him in the last two weeks than over the entire year they’d been traveling together. Some of the weirdness she was seeing could probably be attributed to actually knowing how he felt about things rather than taking an educated guess.

Still, though!

And now he had that look in his eyes as he urged her to go get changed into something warmer. He was like a little boy with a secret that he was just bursting to tell.

Well, she thought, finding a down-filled jacket already hanging in her closet and shrugging it on, he wasn’t going to keep it for much longer. He’d tell her or she’d bully him into it. Whatever worked.

***

He gestured for her to go first, smiling at her. She rolled her eyes at his faux chivalry, but opened the doors anyway. She gasped at the sight of the 40-foot tall waves, then squealed. Loudly. She ran out onto the frozen water with the Doctor, who was discreetly rubbing his ears, following behind. He shut the doors to the TARDIS and followed her footsteps, knowing exactly where she’d be.

Sure enough, he found one wave in particular that had frozen in such a way that there were natural steps leading up to the very top. Rose was about a third of the way up already, so he broke into a brisk jog to catch up to her. She slipped just as he caught up to her. He reached out and steadied her from behind, and if his hands just so happened to land on her fantastic arse to do so, that was just lucky for him, wasn’t it? He smirked at her blush and offered his hand to her. She took it, and hand-in-hand they carefully walked up the rest of the way.

The view was incredible. The TARDIS had landed them just before sunrise, so it was just light enough for them see across the tops of the frozen water. They stood there, just waiting for the sun to come up, and when it did they weren’t disappointed. The ice reflected bright bursts of colors and the wind blew a light dusting of snow across the sky. The flakes caught the light and it looked like a handful of glitter had been thrown out over the waves. Apart from Rose’s slight inhalation at the very beginning, they didn’t make a sound.

Finally, she broke the awed silence. “I love it here,” she said fervently. “It’s so beautiful.”

“Very,” he agreed, eyes fixed on her face. She noticed where he was looking and blushed slightly, but smiled all the same. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear when it escaped from her hat.

“So why are we here?” she asked. “Not that I’m complainin’,” she hurriedly assured him. “But we don’t usually go anywhere twice if it’s not my mum’s flat.”

He shifted uncomfortably. “I’ve been thinkin’,” he said. “‘Bout us.”

“Oh?” Rose licked her lips and he was helpless to do anything but follow the motion with his eyes. “What about, exactly?”

He could see her doing her absolute best to rein in any hope that might be trying to escape. Once again he gave himself a mental smack for taking so long to reach the decision that should have taken him two seconds’ worth of thought to make. He lifted a hand to cup her cheek. “How much of an idiot I’ve been,” he admitted. “How much time I’ve wasted.” He hesitated, then bent down and kissed her softly, doing so as if the slightest pressure might cause her to break. When he drew away just slightly, her eyes remained closed. “Rose?” he asked in slight concern when she didn’t say or do anything.

“This is real, right?” she whispered, her voice nearly lost in the wind. The longing in her voice was clear. Her eyes hadn’t opened yet, as if to do so meant that she would wake up and she’d be back in the TARDIS.

He kissed her again in lieu of a reply, harder this time. His free hand splayed along her back, pulling her toward him, and his other hand slid from her cheek to cradle the back of her head. Slowly, her arms twined around his waist, letting her get even closer. Their bodies connected from chest to thigh, a glorious feeling of heat beginning to spread from her body into his. She gasped, and he took the opportunity to delve into her mouth, exploring every aspect of it as though he never would again. When he withdrew, it was with a gentle nip to her bottom lip. She jumped, though if it was from surprise or arousal, he couldn’t quite tell. He quirked a shy grin at her questioning look.

“Thought that might go over better than pinchin’ you,” he teased.

She smiled uncertainly at him, biting her lip. The sight nearly distracted him from her next question. “What made you change your mind?”

He sobered as he tried to put his thoughts into words. “John Smith did,” he finally said. (There was no way he was crediting Jackie Tyler or Jack Harkness with his change of heart. Some things would go with him to Trenzalore, and their input in this situation was one of them.) “Him, and you. There was a remnant of him left in my mind for a few hours after I assimilated the memories from those three months. He told me it’d be worse when you died if we weren’t together. I’d regret not takin’ the chance on top of grievin’ you. And he was right.” He moved that stubborn piece of hair out of her eyes again. “It took him three days to decide that he wanted to be with you, and not many after that to decide that he wanted to marry you. Nothin’ from his past was gonna keep him from you, and he had as tragic a backstory as he could’ve gotten. And then you said that he was me. He was me if I’d been born a human. And if as a human I’d decided I didn’t want to live without you, then sure as hell I can decide the same thing as a Time Lord.”

He pulled the object from his pocket that he’d been fidgeting with for the past few weeks and held it up to her. “Found this in his pocket when I changed,” he said nervously, watching her eyes grow large at the sight of the ring. A hand went to her mouth and she looked back at his face in shock. “I know we’ve never done anything,” he continued. “Never been on a proper date, never decided that we should try it out, never -” he swallowed “-never said how much we meant to each other. Maybe I’m doin’ this all backwards, but then, when’ve we ever done what’s normal?” He shored up his courage and did the bravest thing he’d ever done.

“Marry me, Rose.”

***

Hours later, after they’d celebrated properly (and hadn’t that been just as fantastic as Rose saying yes!), they went back to Powell Estates to pick up Tim and say goodbye to Jack.

Now that he could do more than hold her hand without guilt, he couldn’t stop touching her. Hugs, kisses, a possessive hand around her waist, a slap to the arse (really, he should’ve known that one would’ve been reciprocated), it didn’t matter. He had to have her within reach at all times. He even accompanied her up to the flat, much to her pleased surprise. He couldn’t even bring himself to act irritated when Jackie zeroed in on the ring on Rose’s left hand and let out a piercing shriek that should’ve shattered the windows. He did, however, take a quick step backward, leaving Rose to fend off her mother alone.

Maybe he should feel embarrassed that it took turning into a human to make him realize what he wanted, needed, in his life. But he didn’t. He was just happy that he finally figured it out. The timelines were swirling around him, and he could see his and Rose’s lines intertwining, stretching far out into the future, farther than he ever thought possible. The days ahead looked golden and bright.

He smiled, and went to join his girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! Hope I did the fandom justice!
> 
> Thanks to all my reviewers, especially TimeLadyHope, KK1986, and DropRaptorAlta7, who left me sweet notes on nearly every chapter. :) And, of course, my thanks to Loeka, who kicked my butt into gear to write the last two chapters before this got stuck as incomplete for the next three years.
> 
> Keep an eye out for more stuff! I have another WIP called "Multiplicity" that I might post in December!

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, yeah, I know, a Nine/Rose AU featuring the Family of Blood is so totally original. But I hope I've put a bit of a unique spin on it, enough that you can read it without completely cringing. XD
> 
> I wrote this for NaNoWriMo 2016 and I'm just now getting around to posting it. It's been vaguely beta'd in that my BIFF loeka has looked over it a little bit and declared it likable, so I'm finally slapping it up here. That being said, it's still not quite finished - once I hit 50K words, I ignored it for like six months because I was so tired of it, and then I've kind of ignored it until loeka was like, "hey, you post this." But I have most of it written and just need to wrap it up in a nice little bow.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Leave kudos or even a review if you're feeling particularly good about the day!
> 
> ~tp


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